Sens. Edward Markey (D-Mass.), Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) and Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) have released a report asserting that while 12 of 16 companies that responded to a series of questions from the lawmakers have made progress in reducing marketing and promotion activities targeting children younger than age 12 and children in K-12 school settings, they have failed to voluntarily eliminate such efforts geared toward teenagers (ages 13-18). “Despite energy drink makers’ claims of not marketing their products to teenagers, a quick glance at social media or a drop by at a local concert shows that those claims just aren’t based in fact,” Senator Durbin was quoted as saying. “The truth is that in the absence of federal regulation, energy drink companies are using effective marketing tactics to reach young people—and sadly it’s working. It is past time for this industry to heed the advice of public health experts across the country…
Category Archives Issue 552
Shook, Hardy & Bacon White Collar Defense & Government Investigations Practice Co-Chair David Maria provides a detailed discussion of typical issues that companies doing business internationally face in deciding whether to self-report to the U.S. government potential criminal conduct under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) in the winter 2015 issue of DRI’s In-House Defense Quarterly. According to Maria, a former prosecutor in the Criminal Division of the Department of Justice, a “corporate defendant starts with a significant strike against it if it seeks to cooperate after the government is informed of the conduct through independent means. Once the government learns of the conduct through a source other than the corporation (most likely a whistleblower), assuming that the corporation was aware of the conduct but opted not to disclose it (or had not yet disclosed it), even the most energetic cooperation may result in little credit given by the government.”…
12
