Tech & Sourcing @ Morgan Lewis

In 2023, many companies are looking to get ahead of the issues that are expected to shape the next few years. In our industry outlook, “The Trends—and Traps—That Will Shape 2023,” our lawyers provide a high-level overview of what’s in store for various global industry sectors, highlighting some of the top tech trends and global regulatory developments.

The European Union’s Digital Services Act (DSA) came into force on November 16, 2022. The DSA creates comprehensive new obligations for online platforms, introduces protections for users' rights online, and places digital platforms under a new transparency and accountability framework. The DSA is a first-of-a-kind regulatory toolbox globally, which sets an international benchmark for a regulatory approach to online intermediaries.

In Part 1, we discussed what a dependency in a technology integration is and how to deal with it in a contract. In this installment, we’ll consider how to address the risk of the assisting party not providing required information or assistance.

New York recently passed a law that, effective immediately, allows student athletes at colleges within the state to receive compensation for their name, image, and likeness (NIL) being used to endorse products and services, without the risk of losing their scholarships or eligibility to participate in their sports.

The California Privacy Rights Act (CPRA) and Virginia Consumer Data Protection Act (VCDPA) took effect on January 1, 2023, establishing some of the most comprehensive consumer privacy rights within the United States. In this post we highlight these changes in law and provide a checklist to help companies comply with these new legal challenges.

Whether an organization is adding a new piece of technology to its platform or acquiring a new product to supplement its offerings, the customer (recipient) and vendor (transferor) will need to work together to ensure the successful integration of such technology or product into the recipient’s systems. More often than not, one party cannot do its part without the other party’s assistance, thereby creating a dependency. In this Part 1, we discuss what a dependency is and how to address it in a contract. Check back for Part 2, where we will review remedies available to the parties in case of a breach of any dependency obligations

In our June 2021 blog post, Study Analyzes Costs of a Data Breach, we discussed the Ponemon Institute’s report setting forth a vast dataset that analyzed data breaches at hundreds of organizations to spot trends and developments in security risks and best practices. With the calendar turning to 2023, this blog looks at the increased costs of data breaches in 2022 to anticipate how negotiations for liability caps of such breaches may evolve in the new year.

As we reach the end of the year 2022, we have once again compiled all the links to our Contract Corner blog posts, a regular feature of Tech & Sourcing @ Morgan Lewis. In these posts, members of our global technology, outsourcing, and commercial transactions practice highlight particular contract provisions, review the issues, and propose negotiating and drafting tips.

At the end of November, OpenAI released an artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot tool called ChatGPT, which has been called an “iPhone moment in AI” due to its potential to disrupt the technology industry. Although chatbots are a relatively common tool in today’s world, ChatGPT differentiates itself through its ability to instantaneously explain complex concepts in simple terms and to generate creative content from scratch, among other things.

Following up on our April 27, 2022 post, Data Scraping Deemed Legal in Certain Circumstances, the most significant data scraping lawsuit has finally come to an end. After six years of litigation, LinkedIn Corp. and hiQ Labs, Inc. reached a confidential settlement agreement and filed a stipulation and proposed consent judgment (stipulation) with the California district court on December 6, 2022. The stipulation includes, among other things, a $500,000 judgment entered against hiQ, establishment of hiQ’s liability under California common law torts of trespass to chattels and misappropriation, and various forms of injunctive relief effectively prohibiting hiQ’s future ability to data scrape LinkedIn.