According to media reports, sponsors of a ballot initiative to add significant privacy rights to the California constitution, as reported here, have now dropped the initiative. …
Read More CA Update: Sponsors Drop Privacy Ballot Initiative

On 26 June 2013, the Financial Services and the Treasury Bureau (FSTB) published the Consultation Conclusions of Key Legislative Proposals (Proposals) on Establishment of an Independent Insurance Authority (IIA) (Consultation Conclusions) after a 3-month public consultation completed in January 2013. …
Read More Consultation Conclusions of Key Legislative Proposals on Establishment of an Independent Insurance Authority

We previously blogged at here and here about the new requirements introduced by the Hong Kong Federation of Insurers (HKFI), the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA), the Hong Kong Confederation of Insurance Brokers (CIB) and the Professional Insurance Brokers Association (PIBA) respectively with regard to the sale of investment-linked assurance scheme (ILAS) products and disclosure of insurance intermediaries’ remuneration on the sale of ILAS products.   …
Read More Search for Innovative Distribution Channels

A Massachusetts federal court dismissed a coverage lawsuit against a liquor liability insurer, holding that the “supplementary payments” clause in its policy did not require the carrier to furnish a bond to discharge an attachment against the insured’s liquor license. The court agreed that, because the carrier had already paid out its entire limit of liability, it had no obligation to pay either pre-judgment interest or the cost of the bond. …
Read More Massachusetts Federal Court Dismisses Suit Seeking to Hold Carrier Liable for Cost of Bond After Exhaustion of Policy Limit

Last month, in Utica Mut. Ins. Co. v. Amity Ins. Agency, 84 Mass App. Ct. 1111 (Mass. App. Ct. 2013), available here, the Massachusetts Appeals Court issued a favorable decision to an E&O insurer in a duty to defend case. …
Read More Massachusetts Appeals Court Issues Duty to Defend Opinion

More major privacy and data protection developments are in the works in California, following three significant new laws reported here. On September 25, 2013, the California Secretary of State approved steps required to bring before state residents a ballot initiative entitled the Personal Privacy Protection Act (the “Act”). …
Read More CA Residents to Decide on Constitutional Privacy Rights

D&O insurance has long insulated directors and officers of public companies from potential liability. Increasingly, however, board of nonprofit organizations and private companies are looking at D&O insurance for similar protection. …
Read More Developments in D&O Insurance: Increased Demand from Nonprofit Organizations

On September 25, 2013, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (“FDA”) released final guidance on how it intends to regulate mobile applications (“apps”). The guidance consists of a set of nonbinding recommendations that define what mobile apps meet the definition of a medical device and are therefore subject to FDA’s regulation as medical devices and what mobile apps fall outside the definition of a medical device. …
Read More Healthcare Update: FDA Releases Guidance on Mobile Medical Applications