Details on Federal Menu-Labeling Agreement

June 12, 2009

On Wednesday, U.S. Senators Tom Harkin (D-IA), Tom Carper (D-DE) and Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) announced a compromise menu-labeling bill that combines key elements from two competing bills: the Labeling Education and Nutrition (LEAN) Act and the Menu Education and Labeling (MEAL) Act.

Upon enactment, this legislation would preempt past and future state and local laws—including those recently approved in King County (WA), Oregon, and California [...]

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Hotels Should Consider the Legal Issues of Online Social Media

June 1, 2009

First came blogs. Then MySpace and Facebook. And now Twitter. Although online social media (or “social networking”) was once the domain of students and tech-savvy individuals, it is increasingly used by companies of all sizes for business purposes. For instance, it is now commonplace for hotels to sponsor Twitter accounts to advertise rate discounts and special events. More recently, wineries have joined the fray, with many sponsoring blogs and creating Facebook pages. These [...]

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Washington-Origin Labeling Law Explained

May 26, 2009

Governor Gregoire signed into law Substitute House Bill 1812 on May 7, 2009, which imposes new restrictions on labeling and packaging for wines claimed or implied to originate in “Washington.” The law generally impacts wine producers located wholly in Washington State and wine producers located in American Viticultural Areas (“AVAs”) located within both Washington and an adjoining state. This law applies to wine made from grapes harvested after December 31, 2009 [...]

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Managing Counterparties in Financial Distress

May 15, 2009

Hospitality business implicates virtually every area of the law, including at its core, landlord/tenant law (and increasingly, bankruptcy law). This is the first post in a series dealing with the subject of managing counterparties in financial distress for commercial landlords, tenants, lenders, and real estate investors. This first post focuses on tenant bankruptcy from the perspective of a commercial landlord [...]

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Bill Targets Validity of Arbitration Agreements

May 14, 2009
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In what could be a serious and widespread blow to industry, a new federal bill, the Arbitration Fairness Act of 2009 (HR 1020), contemplates that no pre-dispute arbitration agreement would be valid or enforceable if it requires arbitration of (1) an employment, consumer, or franchise dispute, or (2) a dispute arising under any statute intended to protect civil rights [...]

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Arbitration: Not a Signatory, Not a Problem?

May 14, 2009

Agreements to arbitrate are just that—agreements. That means that parties will only ever arbitrate where they have consented to do so. It is well-settled law that consent may be express or implied, but the confines of implied consent have long been a source of disagreement between state courts. Last week, the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in Arthur Anderson LLP v. Carlisle targeted again the issue of implied [...]

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Arctic Club Hotel Recognized for Preservation

May 11, 2009
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Downtown Seattle’s Arctic Club Hotel–soon to be renamed the “Doubletree Arctic Club Hotel Seattle”–was recognized this afternoon with the 2009 State Historic Preservation Officer’s Award for demonstrated outstanding achievement in historic preservation, according to hotelsmag.com. The award was received by the hotel’s management company, The Hotel Group (”THG”), which is based out of Kirkland, Washington [...]

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Tied-House Laws & Pricing Restrictions: HB 2040

May 7, 2009

In coming days, Gov. Gregoire is expected to sign HB 2040. The Bill, which is in part an artifact of the 9th Circuit’s 2008 Costco v. Hoen decision, will effectively end Washington’s tied house laws and instill new pricing restrictions on beer and wine. Undoubtedly, the law will have a profound effect on how beer and wine manufacturers (and retailers) structure their businesses.

The first part of this post contains a comparison [...]

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