One the world’s largest telecommunications companies and its subsidiary agreed to fines and forfeitures with U.S. and Dutch authorities totaling more than $800 million to resolve a long-running bribery scheme involving a government official in Uzbekistan, USA Today reports.

The report says Manhattan U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara said VimpelCom, headquartered in Amsterdam, and its Uzbek-based subsidiary Unitel LLC, made “bribery a foundation of their business model” throughout Uzbekistan.

“More than $114 million in bribes, according to federal prosecutors, was funneled to the Uzbek official during a six-year period by the firm, which issues publicly-traded securities in the U.S. The companies concealed the bribes through various payments to a shell company that some VimpelCom and Unitel officials knew was owned by the recipient of the bribe payments,” the newspaper reports.

Read the article.

If you are working with a third party on a term sheet, letter of intent or memorandum of understanding (an “LOI”) on what you view as a non-binding basis, make sure to say so explicitly in the LOI, advises Perry Patterson of Buchanan, Ingersoll & Rooney.

“Businesses use LOIs with each other all the time to negotiate and to develop a set of deal principles to be used in a final agreement, on anything from an acquisition to a significant commercial agreement, or conceivably even a key employee hire,” he writes in an article posted on JDSupra.com. “Primarily they serve as discussion documents for the many high level points that need to be agreed upon (in concept) before it makes sense to negotiate final agreements. Most people involved in the development of an LOI assume there is no final deal until the final documents are fully negotiated, signed and delivered.”

He analyzes a recent case from Delaware that has attracted attention both because of the breach of duty to negotiate in good faith that was found and because of the implications it has in determining damages for breach of that duty.

Read the article.

U.S. District Judge Sidney Fitzwater has entered a judgment of $9.6 million for medical products manufacturer ThermoTek Inc. after a jury found that a competitor fraudulently obtained the company’s business information for a series of physical therapy machines.

ThermoTek is the Flower Mound, Texas-based manufacturer of VascuTherm2, Vascutherm4 and other products that are used in the treatment of deep vein thrombosis (DVT) and other medical conditions.

In 2010, ThermoTek was sued by a distributor, which alleged faulty manufacture.

ThermoTek’s lawyers from the Dallas-based law firm Rose•Walker managed to move the case to Dallas, where Judge Fitzwater dismissed a number of the original claims. The attorneys then brought a counterclaim, alleging plaintiffs fraudulently obtained ThermoTek’s business information in order to design and sell their own products. During the litigation, some of the plaintiffs were sanctioned for failing to produce documents.

Read more details about the case.

By Christopher Barnett
Scott & Scott LLP

It is common for software solution providers to use third-party products to support the functionalities those providers have developed for their solutions. For example, a network-monitoring solution may incorporate IBM Cognos functionality, or an accounting solution may incorporate a Microsoft SQL Server database. Increasingly, in today’s market, those solutions are hosted over the Internet, and many software publishers maintain licensing models targeted to solution providers operating in that space (such as Microsoft’s Services Provider License Agreement, or SPLA). However, many businesses still prefer on-premises solutions for their business-critical IT solutions, and vendors of those solutions need to be able to accommodate those preferences.

The two principal options for those vendors are:

1. Reselling or otherwise separately procuring on their customers’ behalf the appropriate kind and quantity of licenses to support the third-party software components incorporated in their solutions, and then deploying the solutions and all required third-party components on the customers’ networks, OR

2. Shipping a complete solution to their customers, with all required third-party components embedded at the factory.

In most cases, the first option is relatively simple to incorporate into the procurement process. However, it often may entail more up-front labor and service charges, since the vendor typically will need to support intensively (if not manage) the implementation of all solution components at customers’ locations. For that reason, many vendors are understandably interested in a more turn-key approach, where they can simply ship a packaged product to their customers and then support the implementation remotely. Unfortunately, most off-the-shelf license agreements pertaining to those third-party software components do not allow a solution provider to redistribute the software to end users for a fee. For that, it usually is necessary to enter into a market-specific ISV or royalty agreement.

Under that kind of an agreement, the vendor obtains the right to embed and redistribute specified software components for use in connection with specified solutions, in return for a fee that is typically calculated based on the number of units shipped or the number of users provisioned to use the solution. In theory, that kind of an agreement seems to be reasonable and appropriate, but, as so often is the case, the Devil lurks in the details:

• Narrow Usage Restrictions – In most cases, software licensed under an embedding agreement may be used exclusively in connection with the vendor’s solution and for no other purposes whatsoever. In practice, this may mean that the vendor needs to build its solution to prevent non-compliant usage, which in some cases may be incompatible with how the solution is designed. If that is the case, then the vendor would need to include similarly narrow usage restrictions in its agreements with its customers, and those terms may not be warmly received by prospective customers’ legal departments.

• Defined User Agreements – On that point, the embedding agreements also may include a laundry list of terms that the vendor is required to include in its customer agreements. Those terms almost always are written to be maximally protective of the software publishers’ interests and almost never are particularly palatable to end users. However, absent an amendment to the embedding agreement, the vendors must consider them to be non-negotiable when discussing transactions with new customers.

• Audit Nightmares – Worst of all, many embedding agreements contain audit-rights clauses that give the software publishers not only the right to conduct audits of vendors’ records and facilities, but also the right to audit the vendors’ customers’ compliance with the license terms. Some of those agreements also give the publishers the right to extract licensing fees and audit costs from those customers in the event that non-compliant usage is discovered. In practice, this means that vendors must draft their customer agreements to permit similarly broad and far-reaching audit activity. However, effectively preventing serious or perhaps irreparable damage that could result to the vendor-customer relationship following such an audit is an extremely difficult goal to achieve in any customer agreement.

For all of the above reasons, vendors considering any kind of royalty ISV or other embedding agreement need to carefully scrutinize the terms of such agreements and then carefully consider whether they are willing and capable of satisfying all of the obligations those agreements typically entail. If there is any doubt, it may be far more sensible to undertake a more labor-intensive licensing strategy than to invite the sort of lost business and licensing exposure that can result from non-compliance with controlling agreements.

The former president of Pilot Flying J, the $31 billion truck stop company run by the family of Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam, has been indicted in connection to a rebate fraud scheme, reports The Tennessean.

In the latest round of indictments — released Tuesday — related to the years-long Pilot investigation, former president Mark Hazelwood and seven other high-ranking employees were indicted this month.

They are accused in “a scheme and artifice to defraud certain interstate trucking companies and for obtaining money from certain interstate trucking companies by means of materially false and fraudulent pretenses, representatives and promises.”

Read the article.

Dallas-based Carrington, Coleman, Sloman & Blumenthal, LLP, has bolstered its corporate transaction and counseling services with the addition of former Fortune 500 general counsel David W. Black.

“Of the roughly 1 million attorneys in the United States today, there are only a handful in private practice after serving as GC at two Fortune 500 companies,” says Carrington Coleman Managing Partner Bruce Collins. “David possesses a profound and virtually unmatched understanding of the challenges facing corporate leaders of emerging, middle market and global companies.”

Black is the former general counsel for both BearingPoint (formerly KPMG Consulting) and Affiliated Computer Services (ACS), and most recently served as counsel for a private equity firm. He joins Carrington Coleman as a partner and will work with the firm’s corporate team on matters relating to a diverse range of business issues, including:

• Corporate governance
• Corporate finance and securities transactions
• Corporate compliance
• Mergers & acquisitions
• Venture capital and private equity
• Commercial banking and lending
• Retail and wholesale operations
• Information technology
• Business process outsourcing
• Managed software services
• Software licensing
• Marketing, branding and endorsement agreements
• Commercial real estate
• Hospital health care providers

In his prior role as general counsel, Black was responsible for global business operations including building a corporate legal department, handling compliance matters arising from investigations by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and Department of Justice, and day-to-day corporate operational concerns. In addition to leading more than 150 acquisitions, he also directed KPMG’s $2.3 billion initial public offering in 2001, the second-largest in NASDAQ history at the time.

Carrington Coleman is a 46-year-old Dallas-based law firm focused on litigation and transactional services in the real estate, oil and gas, securities, construction, information technology, professional services and health care industries, among others. The firm also represents public entities and provides counsel in the areas of corporate transactions, corporate governance, banking, bankruptcy/restructuring, intellectual property, employment, and estate planning.

Akerman LLP announced the expansion of its national Corporate Practice Group with Chicago partners Paul Quinn and Mason “Max” Drake. They work in middle market M&A, private equity and investment funds.

Drake arrives from Greenberg Traurig, Quinn from Paul Hastings. The lawyers join Akerman less than a week after the firm announced it is more than doubling its physical footprint in Chicago. The office has grown fivefold from eight to 44 lawyers since opening just two years ago in February 2014, the firm said.

“Max and Paul are accomplished lawyers who bolster Akerman’s national strengths in middle-market mergers and acquisitions, private equity and venture capital investments, as well as investment fund formation,” said Mary Carroll, chair of the Corporate Practice Group. “Their arrival in Chicago extends the firm’s growing presence in a market of rising importance to our clients across several industry sectors, particularly financial services.”

Quinn represents private equity funds and their portfolio companies in leveraged acquisitions and dispositions. In addition, he advises private companies and portfolio companies in connection with general corporate governance and management teams with respect to employment and compensation arrangements. Quinn also counsels distressed-focused private equity funds in connection with acquisitions through Section 363 asset sales processes, reorganizations in bankruptcy, and out-of-court restructurings, as well as private equity and venture capital funds in minority growth equity investments.

Quinn is a former certified public accountant and has worked with clients in the healthcare, financial services, technologies and manufacturing sectors. Quinn is co-resident in Akerman’s Chicago and Fort Lauderdale office.

Drake concentrates his practice on mergers and acquisitions, private equity and venture capital investments, and investment fund formation. He also advises clients in connection with secured debt and structured finance transactions and employment and compensation arrangements. Drake counsels business entities and their owners through all stages of development, from startup, to growth financing, to ultimate sale. He also represents minority investors and management teams and individuals in related transactions. Drake is co-resident in Akerman’s Chicago and New York offices.

Myanna Dellinger of the University of South Dakota School of Law has posted a discussion of a recent case in which a judge faulted Uber with presenting its drivers with a contract that was “likely, frankly, to engender confusion.”

Dellinger wrote about the case in the ContractsProf Blog.

The underlying case is a class action lawsuit against Uber for allegedly misclassifying its drivers as “independent contractors” instead of regular “employees.”

“Whether this is an example of deliberate strong-arming or intimidating the drivers into not joining the lawsuit or simply unusually poor contract drafting may never be known. Judge Chen did, however, order Uber to stop communicating with drivers covered by the class action suit and barred the company from imposing the new contract on those drivers,” Delinger writes.

Read the article.

The New York Supreme Court ruled that the United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods applied in a contract case in which the plaintiff claimed that the defendant had delivered a nonconforming product that caused $1.7 million in damages plus interest and costs to the plaintiff.

David Zaslowsky and Grant Hanessian of Baker & McKenzie wrote about the case on Lexology.com.

The court denied the majority of the defendant’s dismissal motion, finding the CISG “automatically” applies “when a transaction involves a sale of goods between parties whose places of business are in different countries and those countries are parties to the CISG.”

The case also involved the statute of limitations and the borrowing statute.

Read the article.

All bitcoin transactions are smart contracts, points out Chris DeRose on AmericanBanker.com. “Many institutions, which are increasingly exploring the use of blockchains for value settlement, have been similarly dabbling in the application and uses of smart-contract technology,” writes the community director of the Counterparty Foundation.

“Smart contract” essentially means “programmable money” or self-automated computer programs that can carry out the terms of any contract.

“The finer points of what programmable money is are still being worked out by enthusiasts, but most agree that it is a financial security held in escrow by a network that is routed to recipients based on future events, and computer code,” writes DeRose.

Read the article.

NBTY, Inc., a global leader in vitamins, nutritional supplements and sports and active nutrition, has announced that it has entered into a definitive agreement to sell its U.S. retail business, Vitamin World, to Centre Lane Partners. The deal will enable Vitamin World to operate as a stand-alone retail business. Today, there are 380 Vitamin World stores in the United States, Guam, the Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico.

Latham & Watkins LLP advised NBTY on the transaction with a Washington, DC-based team led by corporate partner David Dantzic and tax partner Andrea Ramezan-Jackson.  Advice was also provided on employee benefits, intellectual property, environmental and real estate matters.

NBTY is the owner of several of the most recognized brands in the marketplace, including:  Nature’s Bounty, Sundown Naturals, Osteo Bi-Flex, Solgar, MET-Rx, Pure Protein, Body Fortress, Puritan’s Pride, Holland & Barrett and many others.

Centre Lane Partners is a private investment firm with investments in North American middle market companies across a broad range of industries. Centre Lane targets companies with revenues between $20 million and $500 million that have leading market positions and sustainable competitive advantages in their respective niches.

“Vitamin World has a long history of meeting its customers’ wellness needs. For some time, it has been clear that it should be a stand-alone business with the right investment and resources tailored to a retail operation,” said Steve Cahillane, President and CEO of NBTY. “With the shift of NBTY’s focus in our US business to investing in and building our core brands, this sale of Vitamin World to Centre Lane Partners will ensure Vitamin World has the right investment and focus on its future as a stand-alone retail business,” Cahillane added.

Mayank Singh, a Managing Director at Centre Lane, said, “We are enthusiastic about working with the Vitamin World management team and employees to position the business for long term growth and success.  They have done a terrific job of making Vitamin World one of the leading specialty retailers of vitamins, minerals and supplements and we want to build on that foundation.”

“The Vitamin World employees are dedicated to helping our customers meet their wellness goals,” said Sue Gove, President of Vitamin World.  “We are excited to begin this new journey with Centre Lane Partners and to continue giving Vitamin World’s loyal customers the best products and service in the industry.”

Vitamin World began in 1976 with a kiosk in Williamsville, New York. Today, there are 380 Vitamin World stores in the United States, Guam, the Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico.

NBTY is a portfolio company of The Carlyle Group.

Latham & Watkins LLP acted as legal advisor and Lazard Middle Market LLC as the financial advisor to NBTY in connection with the transaction. Katten Muchin Rosenman acted as legal advisor and Alvarez & Marsal as the financial advisor to Centre Lane Partners in connection with the transaction.

Andre Fiebig, a partner in Quarles & Brady LLP’s Business Law practice group, has recently published two books. He co-authored the fourth edition (2016) of one of the leading works on international antitrust: “Antitrust and American Business Abroad,” published by Thomson Reuters, and is the author of “EU Business Law,” published by the Business Law Section of the American Bar Association.

“Antitrust and American Business Abroad: (4th ed. 2016) builds upon the work of previous editions and discusses recent developments in the ever-changing world of international antitrust law. Divided in six parts, the result is a comprehensive look at the contemporary landscape of international antitrust that is grounded in historical context.

“EU Business Law” is an analysis and explanation of European Union business legal issues ranging from competition and antitrust law to electronic commerce and consumer protection.

Fiebig’s practice focuses on corporate and antitrust law with an emphasis on mergers and acquisitions, international joint ventures, and commercial law.

He is currently an adjunct professor at Northwestern University School of Law where he teaches Mergers & Acquisitions. Andre also teaches regularly at Bucerius Law School in Hamburg, Germany and Hong Kong University.

“I am happy to be able to provide American-based corporations with an understanding of international business issues, and share practical information on issues affecting companies that do business abroad,” said Fiebig.

A federal jury in New Hampshire ordered Wal-Mart Stores Inc. to pay $31.22 million to a pharmacist who claimed she was fired because of her gender and in retaliation for complaining about safety conditions, Reuters reports.

Maureen McPadden claimed that Wal-Mart used her loss of a pharmacy key as a pretext for firing her in November 2012, when she was 47, after more than 13 years at the retailer.

“McPadden said she was fired in retaliation for her raising concerns that customers at the Wal-Mart store in Seabrook, New Hampshire, where she worked were getting prescriptions filled improperly because of inadequate staff training,” Reuters reports.

Read the article.

Even though the number of Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) enforcement actions dropped during 2015, there were several significant lessons for the compliance practitioner not only to learn but also to put in place in any corporate anti-corruption compliance regime, writes Thomas Fox in FCPAComplianceReport.com.

He discusses some significant events that occurred last year that he believes portend some of the greatest changes not only to compliance but to FCPA enforcement going forward.

Those events are discussed under these headings: The Yates Memo, DOJ Compliance Counsel, First British DP, FIFA Corruption Scandal, and Volkswagen and the Zeitgeist of Compliance.

Read the article.

A class-action suit has been filed in federal court in Portland against two daily fantasy sports sites, FanDuel and DraftKings, alleging both businesses are operating illegal online sports betting, reports The Oregonian.

“Brandon Peck, a resident of Polk County, brought the suit on behalf of himself and more than 100 other Oregon players who lost money in the past three years while placing wagers online through the two sites, Draftkings.com and FanDuel.com,” according to the report.

The plaintiff is asking the court to halt the companies’ operations and have each business pay players back double the amount they’ve “wrongfully lost,” seeking more than $5 million.

Read the article.

Irving, Texas-based Nexstar Broadcasting Group Inc. finally won a contentious and long-running bid Wednesday to become one of the nation’s largest media players, according to a report in The Dallas Morning News.

Nexstar announced plans to merge with Media General, edging out publisher Meredith to consummate a deal valued at $4.6 billion.

“Nexstar will acquire all outstanding shares of Media General for $10.55 a share in cash and 0.1249 of a share of Nexstar Class A common stock for each Media General share,” The Morning News reports. “Media General shareholders also are entitled to proceeds received from the sale of Media General’s spectrum in an incentive auction set to be held by the Federal Communication Commission.”

Read the story.

Gardere Wynne Sewell LLP announced that partners Joyce Mazero and Leonard H. (Len) MacPhee will lead the firm’s Global Supply Network Industry Team from its Dallas and new Denver offices. Mazero and MacPhee were most recently partners with Perkins Coie LLP, where they led its Supply Chain and Franchise & Distribution Practice Groups.

Mazero has significant experience as lead project partner, assisting clients in developing strategy, structuring, negotiating, implementing and resolving disputes for product and service-based domestic and international franchise, distribution, manufacturing and logistics businesses. She has worked with structuring and negotiating group purchasing cooperatives and arrangements for global contract manufacturing and sourcing, international franchise systems, special venue licensing, dedicated transportation and outsourced logistics management.

“Joyce’s well-recognized international reputation as a strong advocate and trusted, strategic business advisor for her clients in the supply chain, food service, restaurant and retail industries reflects an important benchmark showcasing our commitment to ‘best in class’ legal services targeting these industries,” says Gardere Chair Holland N. O’Neil. “The continued growth of our international trade and supply chain expertise is greatly enhanced with the addition of Joyce.”

Mazero has served on the boards of the National Restaurant Association Educational Foundation, International Franchise Association, Women’s Foodservice Forum and the American Bar Association’s Forum on Franchising. Mazero currently serves on the NRA’s Executive Supply Chain Advisory Council and as a trustee for the College of Merchandising, Hospitality and Tourism at the University of North Texas. She has received numerous awards for her work, including the Women’s Foodservice Forum Leadership Award, International Franchise Association Bonnie Levine Award and the Dallas Business Journal Women in Business Award. Mazero has consistently received the highest national ranking awarded by Chambers USA as one of the nation’s leading franchise attorneys, and she is recognized as a leading franchise attorney in Chambers Global, The Best Lawyers in America©, U.S. News & World Report, International Who’s Who of Franchise Lawyers and Franchise Times. She is routinely named a Texas Super Lawyer and among D Magazine’s Best Lawyers in Dallas, in addition to serving as a member of Franchise Times’ Legal Eagles Hall of Fame.

MacPhee will be opening and managing the Firm’s new Denver office. His work includes analyzing and advising clients on significant supply network matters, including pre-litigation work, structuring business strategies and negotiating contracts for the rollout, wind down and transition of product distribution networks across multiple supply chains. He frequently litigates business disputes and issues relating to supply network and distribution matters, as well as disputes involving contracts, business torts, trade secrets, trade dress, covenants not to compete, and enforcement of intellectual property rights before state and federal trial and appellate courts, including arbitration panels.

“Len brings a wealth of experience in supply chain and distribution matters, including franchise and commercial litigation,” says O’Neil. “Adding a well-established national practice with high-caliber Denver-based attorneys, led by Len, is the ideal way for Gardere to expand its footprint into Colorado, and we look forward to growing in that market.”

MacPhee is recognized as one of America’s leading franchise lawyers by Chambers USA, The Best Lawyers in America® and Colorado Super Lawyers. In 2014, he was named Franchise Law “Lawyer of the Year” by Best Lawyers® Denver. Mr. MacPhee received his J.D. from The Dickinson School of Law at Pennsylvania State University. He serves on International Franchise Association committees for the IFA Legal Symposium and IFA Annual Convention, and as a host of Denver’s Franchise Business Network.

Joining Mazero and MacPhee are partner Jess A. Dance and associate Sarah A. Walters.

Dance focuses his practice on franchise, distribution and supply chain matters, as well as complex commercial litigation. He frequently represents clients in litigation and arbitration, and on a pre-litigation basis relating to supply network, distribution, trade secrets, trade dress, covenants not to compete, and enforcement of contract and trademark rights. He also advises clients in supply and distribution contract drafting and negotiation. Dance previously served as an assistant attorney general with the Colorado Attorney General’s Office, representing state agencies in state and federal court in a variety of constitutional cases. He graduated with honors from the Georgetown University Law Center and has been recognized as a Colorado Rising Star by Super Lawyers. Dance has authored multiple articles for Law 360 and the International Law Office’s Franchising Newsletter – USA, and has presented at the IFA Legal Symposium and Denver Franchise Business Network events. In 2012, he was co-recipient of the Colorado Lawyer Committee’s “Team of the Year” award for his work on a pro bono case involving public school funding.

Walters focuses her practice on supply chain, franchise, distribution and logistics matters, counseling and coordinating projects for national and global clients for transactional, regulatory, governance and dispute resolution projects. This includes negotiation of a wide range of franchise and supply chain contracts on a domestic and international basis. Walters served as general counsel for a national franchisor, where she was responsible for the company’s franchise transactions, regulatory and corporate governance matters, and supply and distribution transactions. She is the host of Dallas’ Franchise Business Network and served as chair of the Dallas Bar Association Franchise Law Section in 2015.

Gardere Wynne Sewell LLP, an Am Law 200 firm founded in 1909 and one of the Southwest’s largest full-service law firms, has offices in Austin, Dallas, Houston, Denver and Mexico City. Gardere provides legal services to private and public companies and individuals in the areas of corporate, energy, environmental, financial restructuring and reorganization, financial services, government affairs, hospitality, insurance, intellectual property, international, labor and employment, litigation, private equity, real estate and tax.

eSignLive is offering a free ebook that provides an introduction to electronic signature laws around the world.

Electronic signatures are in use across the globe, the company says. The widespread adoption of e-signatures has been supported by electronic signature laws around the world, including the Americas, Europe, Middle East, Africa and Asia-Pacific. Many of these are based on a model law enacted by the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law – Model Law on Electronic Signatures (2001).

Today more than 75 countries that recognize the legal validity of e-signatures. This eBook covers:

• The three forms of electronic signatures – Basic, Advanced and Certificate/Qualified E-Signatures;
• A list of e-signature types allowed by each country;
• Links to resources such as the Database of Electronic Signature Legislation;
• Information about data residency and privacy laws.

Download the ebook.

Trial lawyer Robin L. Harrison, who has a 30-year track record of representing both plaintiffs and defendants in business disputes, has joined the Houston-based commercial litigation firm Hicks Thomas LLP as a partner.

A longtime Houston lawyer, Harrison focuses his practice on the trial and resolution of business disputes, including cases involving claims of fraud and misrepresentation, breach of contract, breach of fiduciary duties, trade secret misappropriation and professional negligence. He previously was a name partner at Campbell Harrison & Dagley LLP.

On the plaintiff side, Harrison has won multimillion-dollar jury verdicts and settlements against major corporations and national accounting firms. He achieved prominence representing the class of thousands of former Enron employees who lost their retirement savings when the company collapsed. His defense work includes take-nothing verdicts for a Fortune 500 data processing company in trade secrets and employment cases and a significant defense judgment for an interstate pipeline company in a natural gas contract dispute.

Read more details.

Relying on “basic principles of contract law,” the Supreme Court has held that an unaccepted settlement offer and offer of judgment under Rule 68 are “legal nullit[ies]” that have no effect on whether a live controversy remains between the parties, according to an analysis written by BakerHostetler’s Jacqueline Matthews and Rand McClellan and published on JDSupra.com.

The case is Campbell-Ewald Co. v. Gomez, No. 14-857.

“The upshot of the Court’s decision is that a defendant cannot moot a putative class action by merely offering full relief to the named plaintiff on his or her individual claims,” the authors write. “The Court, however, expressly left open the question of whether payment of full individual relief could moot the case.”

Read the article.