Insights

On March 1, 2024, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Alabama (the “Court”) issued an opinion declaring the Corporate Transparency Act (“CTA”) unconstitutional.  On the same date, the Court issued a Final Judgment enjoining the U.S. Department of the Treasury (“Treasury”) from enforcing the CTA as to the named plaintiffs.  On March 11, Treasury filed a notice of appeal of the Court’s ruling.  According to Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (“FinCEN”), the only immediate impact of the Court’s injunction is to the named plaintiffs and the members of the National Small Business Foundation, effective March 1, 2024. 

On 29 June 2023, the long-awaited Financial Services and Markets Act 2023 (the “Act”) received Royal Assent, clearing the Act’s final hurdle prior to its implementation. The Act is the framework for the UK’s post-Brexit financial legislative and regulatory landscape.  Focusing on the promotion of competition, innovation and investor protections, it hopes to ensure the UK’s continued leadership in the global economy by providing “a smarter financial services framework”. While the Act is 349 pages in length, we have set out some of the key themes and regulations currently making headlines.

On July 24, 2023, an en banc Eleventh Circuit joined the majority of circuits to find that just one text is sufficient to establish standing to bring a Telephone Consumer Protection Act (“TCPA”) claim. The decision, Drazen v. Pinto, --- F.4th ---, 2023 WL 4699939 (11th Cir. July 24, 2023), not only undoes the panel’s original holding, but also reverses course from the Eleventh Circuit’s prior decision in Salcedo v. Hanna, 936 F.3d 1162 (11th Cir. 2019), which held that a Plaintiff who received a single text message did not have TCPA standing.