: Hello. The CALL Private Law Library Special Interest Group met October 2 for the first meeting of the 2024-2025 session. This year we are going to focus on soft skills in private law libraries, and we started with reviewing statistics and data-driven decision making. These decisions can be as simple as which books to weed based on circulation statistics to as in-depth as which products to cancel based on little use. We welcomed a number of private law librarians for a rousing discussion on the use of stats, how we make decisions, how we report the statistics to our managing partner / C-level team / lawyers, and everything in between. We ended with a round table, as we often do, and came up with some ideas for future sessions, including how private firms bill / don’t bill for online research, how to use the stats to inform new training sessions, and will AI ever be able to run stats for us? We concluded with a call for private law librarians to volunteer with CALL’s mentorship program, which is making a com[...]
: The Federal Trade Commission will co-host a workshop on May 14-15, 2026, with George Mason University Law School’s Institute for Consumer Financial Choice (ICFC) focusing on developments in the financial services marketplace in the five years since the creation of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s Taskforce on Federal Consumer Financial Law. The event’s first day, whichwill be led by the FTC, will feature opening remarks from Christopher Mufarrige, Director of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection, as well as ICFC Co-Directors Todd Zywicki and Tom Miller. It will also include two panel discussions focused on innovations in the financial services marketplace and on the implications for consumers, businesses, and regulators of new products and tech applications. The second day, led by the ICFC, will feature three panel discussions focused on the findings of a report from the Taskforce on Federal Consumer Financial Law. The event is free and open to the public and will take place in person at [...]
: Governor Newsom has signed California's AB 2244 , which creates the country's first voluntary non-ultraprocessed food certification program. By June 1, 2029, the California Department of Public Health (CDPH) must develop a system to accredit independent certification agents that can certify food products as “Non-Ultraprocessed Certified.” The “Non-Ultraprocessed Certified” seal (proposed previously to be “California Certified”) may only be used for foods that do not qualify as an ultraprocessed food (UPF), UPF of concern, or a restricted food, as defined by California's UPF standards introduced in 2025. The program will allow certified products to display the seal on their packaging and will require manufacturers to recertify their products every three years. CDPH must create and maintain a public database of these certified products. Under the law, retailers with more than 25 individual non-UPF-certified product types and who generate more than $10 million in sales annually will be required to prominently d[...]
: Brussels/Frankfurt, 1 July – The EDPB and the Anti-Money Laundering Authority (AMLA) are working together to bring greater clarity to a question of growing importance for industry and authorities alike: how to share information to fight financial crime while protecting personal data. Why information sharing matters The fight against financial crime depends on cooperation, and information sharing can help detect and prevent money laundering and terrorist financing. Art. 75 of the AML Regulation makes this possible, allowing companies and professionals covered by anti-money laundering rules to share information with each other and with public authorities, within clear limits. The new information sharing possibility will apply from 10 July 2027. To provide clarity on this possibility, the EDPB and AMLA will work together on the development of Joint Guidelines. Clearer rules for industry and authorities Sharing information of this kind means processing personal data, which is why data protection safeguards are[...]
: Le texte français suit. CALLeagues, With the release of the program for the annual conference , I hope to see many of you in Moncton. This varied and engaging program is the tangible result of the vision and leadership of our Conference Planning Committee Co-Chairs Michèle Leblanc and Laura Corscadden, with guidance from our Second Vice-President Pia Williams, along with the hard work of the volunteers on the subcommittees, and the many speakers who will be sharing their expertise - how fortunate we all are that these currents will converge in a month’s time in the “Hub City”. Leading up to our flagship event, the first part of our annual general meeting will be held on Monday, May 11, 2:00PM-2:30PM ET. While the formal notice will soon be sent to your inboxes, I could not wait to let you all know now, as this is the forum in which our many committees and Special Interest Groups report on and celebrate their activities and achievements from the past year. As we prepare for our most important events of the ye[...]
: You can read outgoing CALL President George Tsiakos' last From the President's Desk column on our website. In it, George outlines some of the CALL Board's many recent accomplishments: "One of the Board highlights of the past year has been supporting the organization of the first in-person annual conference in four years (...) With so many members expressing their eagerness to come together in person once again, I am thrilled that we are able to provide this opportunity (...)" "Another Board accomplishment I am particularly proud of is the initiation of a strategic planning process. This process aims to develop a new plan that will guide the Executive Board's work over the coming years. By engaging in this activity, we are ensuring that the Association remains responsive to the needs of our community. We are currently in the final drafting stages and will soon unveil a comprehensive plan that outlines our goals and objectives for the future." "With the help of National Office, we have also been working har[...]
: The Federal Trade Commission finalized an order with General Motors and OnStar settling allegations that they collected, used, and sold consumers’ precise geolocation data and driving behavior data from millions of vehicles without adequately notifying consumers and obtaining their affirmative consent. Under the order finalized by the Commission, General Motors LLC, General Motors Holdings LLC, and OnStar, LLC (collectively GM), which are owned by General Motors Company, are prohibited from sharing certain consumer data with consumer reporting agencies. They also are required to take steps to provide greater transparency and choice to consumers over the collection, use, and disclosure of their connected vehicle data. In a complaint first announced in January 2025, the FTC alleged that GM used a misleading enrollment process to get consumers to sign up for its OnStar connected vehicle service and OnStar Smart Driver feature. The FTC also alleged that GM failed to clearly disclose that it collected consumers’ [...]
: Federal Trade Commission Chairman Andrew N. Ferguson has appointed Emma Mittelstaedt Burnham as Associate Director for Healthcare in the Bureau of Competition. “I am delighted to appoint Emma as Associate Director for Healthcare in the Bureau of Competition. She is a talented attorney with many years of experience at the Department of Justice as a senior antitrust enforcer,” said FTC Chairman Andrew N. Ferguson. “Emma will be an invaluable champion in the FTC’s ongoing fight to protect Americans’ access to affordable, high-quality healthcare.” Emma has significant experience leading the investigation and prosecution of complex antitrust conduct cases, having spent 11 years as a prosecutor at the U.S. Department of Justice Antitrust Division. Most recently, she served as the Director of Criminal Enforcement, supervising the Antitrust Division’s price-fixing matters throughout the United States. She previously held the positions of Trial Attorney, Counsel to the Assistant Attorney General, Assistant Chief, and[...]
: Le texte français suit. CALLeagues, This will be my last message as your president, and to start, I am grateful to each of you for reading this monthly bulletin and staying informed about the business of CALL/ACBD. In an age when we are bombarded with emails (I am rather embarrassed by the number of unread messages in my inbox), the fact that this newsletter is opened by ~60% of you each month is a positive indicator of your engagement. As the month of May coincides with our marquee annual conference and the transition of leadership on the Executive Board and some of our Committees and Special Interest Groups, it is my hope that some of you will elevate your engagement by lending your time and expertise as a volunteer. As I mentioned in my first message as your president in June 2025: “the ongoing vitality of our association is built on the dedication of our volunteers, and each of you has invaluable skills, expertise, and life experience withwhich to contribute” and nearly a year later, this remains very m[...]
: Over the last thirty years, the increasing globalisation of economic exchanges has contributed to the emergence of a network of main ports linked together by maritime transport and, in particular, the lines developed by the major shipping lines or the alliances they have formed. In addition to Asian ports, and particularly Chinese ports given the national port strategy, this network of main ports has also been structured by investments made by shipping lines in port terminals intended to become their regional hubs and thus facilitate the massification of flows. From these hubs, feeders serve other ports, giving rise to a form of classification within these main global ports. This organisation has helped to shape the global value chains, or world trade routes, which are both the medium and the result of globalisation. The covid-19 health crisis, the ensuing economic crisis and current geopolitical tensions are all contributing to a possible transformation of these global value chains. The purpose of this pape[...]
: Le texte français suit. Dear CALLeagues, First, a heartfelt thank you to everyone who took the time to fill in our conference survey. Your feedback is invaluable as we plan future conferences. As promised, we held two draws for those who completed the survey, and I am delighted to announce the winners: congratulations to Emma Scott, who wins the Moncton Delta gift certificate, and to Betty Dykstra, who wins $100 off next year's conference! I am pleased to share that Our Executive Director (OED) has now officially taken over sole management of CALL/ACBD's account. We are still very much in a period of integration, and I ask for your continued patience as the OED team learns our needs and ways of working. As they review how we do things, OED has also been offering helpful suggestions for process improvements and identifying opportunities to tidy up and strengthen our existing practices. We are grateful for their fresh perspective and attention to detail, and we look forward to building an even stronger foundat[...]
: New data from the Federal Trade Commission reveal that people reported losing a staggering $3.5 billion to imposter scams in 2025, with reported losses increasing nearly three times since 2020. FTC data also show that people reported imposter scams more than any other fraud category in 2025—nearly one in three fraud reports were about imposter scams. These scams lured consumers through text, phone, email, social media, search engine results and other means. Some of the costliest impersonation scams start with a fake security alert, often from a bank. People are convinced to move money to “protect” it, with their losses often limited only by their available funds. Last year, people reported losing nearly $1 billion to business impersonators with the highest reported losses to bank impersonators—and about $920 million to government impersonators, up from $866 million and $789 million respectively in 2024. The FTC has seen a striking increase in reported fraud losses to all types of fraud—about $16 billion was [...]
: Public consultation on the draft BEREC Work Programme 2027 yannick.stephan Thu, 01/10/2026 - 09:00 Breadcrumbs Public Consultations & Calls for Inputs Deadline to submit contributions: 31 October 2026 In January this year, BEREC adopted the Outline BEREC Work Programme 2027 , which reflected BEREC's objectives for the upcoming year. BEREC launched a first Call for inputs on the Work Programme 2027 from 27 February to 15 April. During the call for proposals, several additional actions were identified. Considering the early input received, during the 68th BEREC ordinary meetings (1-2 October 2026), the Board of Regulators adopted the draft BEREC Work Programme 2027 [BoR (26) 142] for public consultation. Background BEREC prepares its annual work programme in accordance with Article 21 of the BEREC Regulation and the BEREC Strategy 2026-2030 to guide how it organises and prioritises its work towards clearly defined objectives. The 2027 draft work programme was developed inclusively and transparently, with cont[...]
: Brussels, 28 November - The EDPB launched a call for expression of interest to establish a new reserve list for the Support Pool of Experts (SPE) programme . The objective is set up a reserve list of legal and technical experts. The legal expertise sought includes a wide range of fields, such as data protection, policy monitoring, technology, cybersecurity, competition, healthcare, online intermediary services and content moderation . As for the technical expertise , the relevant areas include IT auditing, website security, mobile OS and apps, Internet of Things, cloud-computing, behavioural advertising, anonymisation techniques, cryptology, artificial intelligence, User experience (UX) design, fintech , data science, social science (incl. economics, sociology, psychology), and development of applications and software . Bring your expertise to the table Don’t miss this opportunity to participate in this EDPB’s key strategic initiative. Your work will help Data Protection Authorities (DPAs) across Europe incr[...]
: UEFA European Football Championship and sports betting: the French Gambling Authority (ANJ) gathers operators and announces a dynamic and structuring action plan admin lun 13/09/2021 - 16:45 On 20 July 2021, the French Gambling Authority (ANJ) gathered sports betting’s operators in order to make the overview of the European Football Championship that has been scarred by some abuses. Resulting from a constructive exchange, these operators have agreed on the necessity to proceed at a rebalancing of their practices in order to preserve the recreational model of the French gambling market. As such, the ANJ introduced an action plan that seeks to reinforce operators’ compliance, to adapt and complete existing tools and, where required, to use sanctioning procedures. English Questionable practices highlighted during the European Football Championship UEFA European Football Championship 2021 confirmed the growing place of sports bets in France with EUR 434 million of online stakes. The French team matches have arou[...]
: 7-Eleven, Inc. and its parent company, Seven & i Holdings Co., Ltd., (collectively 7-Eleven) will pay $4.5 million to settle a Federal Trade Commission lawsuit alleging that the convenience store chain violated a 2018 FTC consent order by acquiring a fuel outlet in St. Petersburg, Fla. without providing the Commission prior notice. The $4.5 million penalty marks the largest civil penalty ever collected in an FTC case involving a prior-notice violation. It is also the largest negotiated settlement of any order violation in the FTC Bureau of Competition’s history. “Under the Trump-Vance FTC, merger remedies that protect competition are once again on the table. But for merger remedies to work, firms must abide by the terms of their consent orders, and we will hold parties accountable when they don’t live up to their commitments,” said Daniel Guarnera, Director of the FTC’s Bureau of Competition. “7-Eleven failed to fulfill the terms of the FTC’s consent order and is now paying a record price. The FTC will not h[...]
: Lights out on unsubstantiated pain relief claims and deceptive native advertising lfair June 25, 2020 | 3:00PM Lights out on unsubstantiated pain relief claims and deceptive native advertising By Lesley Fair For consumers struggling with severe or chronic pain, ads for a product called Willow Curve appeared to offer light at the end of the tunnel. But the FTC alleges the marketers made false and unsubstantiated claims for the product , a device that applied low-level light and mild heat to the site of pain – and set people back between $599 and $799 in the process. The proposed settlement also sheds light on the FTC’s ongoing concern with deceptive native advertising. The complaint names two Michigan companies, Physician’s Technology, LLC, and Willow Labs, LLC, and two individuals affiliated with both businesses, Dr. Ronald Shapiro and David Sutton. In ads on national TV, satellite radio, online, and in social media, the defendants claimed that for people suffering from rheumatoid arthritis, diabetic neuropa[...]
: Today, 22 states joined the Federal Trade Commission in filing suit against Amazon, alleging that the company engaged in deceptive and unfair practices that secretly inflated prices in its online search advertising auctions. The complaint alleges that, for over seven years, Amazon has covertly and substantially increased the prices that more than one million brands and sellers were required to pay to advertise on its platform. As a result, the complaint alleges that Amazon’s scheme has likely extracted tens of billions of dollars from its unwitting advertising customers. “When one of the world’s largest online retailers engages in unfair and deceptive conduct, the impact can be staggering,” said Chairman Andrew N. Ferguson. “Amazon has millions of advertising customers who were misled into paying significantly higher prices. These higher costs were largely passed on to American consumers. The FTC under President Trump won’t allow this deception to continue.” The FTC, along with the attorneys general of Ala[...]
: FTC challenges Online Trading Academy’s money-making claims lfair February 12, 2020 | 4:35PM FTC challenges Online Trading Academy’s money-making claims By Lesley Fair Ads for health products often target Boomer Consumers, but those aren’t the only claims pitched to people looking toward retirement. An FTC action alleges a company called Online Trading Academy has taken in more than $370 million by gearing its deceptive representations to that demographic. In addition, the complaint alleges violations of the Consumer Review Fairness Act. According to the FTC, the California-based operation, related companies, and three individual defendants advertise a “patented strategy” that consumers can apply “to any asset class including stocks, options, futures and currencies” to rake in big money. They claim their “training programs” – with price tags as high as $50,000 – will teach consumers how to “invest like the pros on Wall Street.” ”No matter your experience and goals,” people were told the defendants’ “proven” [...]
: By: Susannah Tredwell , Manager of Library Services at DLA Piper (Canada) LLP and James Bachmann , Instructional Librarian, Law Library, University of British Columbia Since 1988, when CALL/ACBD’s Copyright Committee was first set up, CALL/ACBD has advocated for its members' interests in the area of copyright. While the primary focus of CALL/ACBD’s copyright advocacy over the last few years has been on Crown copyright and primary law, CALL/ACBD has also made submissions about such areas as fair dealing and licencing. CALL/ACBD sees this work as not only supporting the needs of its members but also as serving the interests of access to justice as a whole. Continuing this work, on January 18, 2022 CALL/ACBD, along with Library Futures Institute, will act as an intervener in the Supreme Court of Canada case Society of Composers, Authors and Music Publishers of Canada, et al. v. Entertainment Software Association, et al. Kim Nayyer, CALL/ACBD’s President, and Robert Janes of JFK Law will be representing CALL[...]
: Practice Fusion case suggests 6 health privacy pointers lfair June 8, 2016 | 9:01AM Practice Fusion case suggests 6 health privacy pointers By Lesley Fair Combine two of the most talked-about consumer protection topics – health privacy and consumer-generated online content – and what do you get? A proposed FTC settlement with Practice Fusion, the largest cloud-based electronic health records company in the country, and six compliance tips for others in the industry. One of San Francisco-based Practice Fusion’s primary products is an electronic records system for outpatient providers. In 2009, the company launched “Patient Fusion,” an online portal where patients whose providers were already using Practice Fusion could view or download their health information or transmit it to another provider. Patient Fusion also let patients send and receive secure messages from their providers. Fast forward several years and the company decided to expand Patient Fusion to include a public directory where current and prosp[...]
: The FTC's Google settlement: What's the buzz? wfg-adm109 April 1, 2011 | 4:28PM The FTC's Google settlement: What's the buzz? By Lesley Fair “Sweet! Check out Buzz.” “Nah, go to my inbox.” That was the intriguing choice facing Gmail users last year when Google launched Google Buzz, its social network. But according to a settlement announced this week by the FTC, the company violated the privacy promises it made to Gmail users and used deceptive tactics in the Buzz rollout. The story starts with Google’s privacy policy. From October 2004 until October 2010, Gmail users were told, "Gmail stores, processes and maintains your messages, contact lists and other data related to your account in order to provide service to you." On the subject of the choices users had about the use of their personal information in all of Google’s products, including Gmail, the privacy policy said, "When you sign up for a particular service that requires registration, we ask you to provide personal information. If we use this inform[...]