Recently, in Re AbitibiBowater Inc., the Province of Newfoundland sought a court order granting it access to the electronic data room of Abitibi created for the purpose of dissemination of certain non-public financial and operation information to its counsel, certain creditors, and the Monitor. The Court denied the Province’s application on the basis that it could not prove itself to be a legitimate stakeholder of Abitibi, and on several policy grounds.

Xi Xiaoming, the deputy president of China’s Supreme People’s Court, said that the Supreme People’s Court has formally launched efforts to formulate judicial interpretations on the Enterprise Bankruptcy Law. The Court will conduct further research on several important legal issues arising from the new circumstances and problems which the courts have encountered since the introduction of the Enterprise Bankruptcy Law on 1 June 2007.

In the September, 2006 issue of Insolvency Notes, the effect of the overhaul of the bankruptcy laws in the Czech Republic was discussed. As was the case at that time, the new insolvency laws were to become effective July 1, 2007. It now appears that the effective date will be delayed. The lower house of Czech Parliament gave fast-track approval recently to a bill for delaying implementation of the new bankruptcy act by six months, to January 1, 2008. Senate and presidential approval is still needed.

Expect the unexpected from your Web site privacy policy. In a handful of cases, including two which were recently decided, companies have been thwarted in various, unexpected ways by the commitments made in their online privacy policies.

Are your intellectual property litigators reading your privacy policy?

Previously, on June 16, 2010, the Joint Administrators (the “Administrators”) of Lehman Brothers International (Europe) (“LBIE”) announced that they would be testing the feasibility of their so-called Consensual Approach to the resolution of LBIE’s unsecured creditor claims. They anticipated the Consensual Approach would be applicable to financial trading creditors ("FTCs") and conceptually outlined the Consensual Approach as follows:

The judge presiding over the bankruptcy proceeding of the operator of a Web site and magazine aimed at gay teens has approved a settlement allowing the destruction of personal information of users rather than a sale to creditors as part of the bankruptcy estate. The court approved the settlement after the Federal Trade Commission raised objections to the sale, citing the Web site sign-up confirmation page, which stated that "[w]e never give your info to anybody," and a similar statement directed to subscribers of an associated print magazine.

Perhaps prompted by revelations that one or more Connecticut-based insurers failed to notify individuals or report known data security incidents or breaches until weeks, or even months, after the data had been lost or stolen, the state's Insurance Commissioner has issued stringent new reporting obligations applicable to all entities regulated by the Connecticut Department of Insurance (CDI), including, for example, insurers, agents, brokers, adjusters, health maintenance organizations, preferred provider networks, discount health plans and certain consultants and utilization review companie

Ambac Financial Group Inc., parent of the troubled bond insurer Ambac Assurance Corp., said Monday that it is pursuing the restructuring of its debt with a group of debt holders through a pre-packaged bankruptcy filing. The Company added that if it is unable to reach a debt restructuring agreement, it will file for bankruptcy by the end of this year. The Company's statement can be read by clicking here.

The head of the Federal Trade Commission’s (“FTC”) Consumer Protection Bureau, David Vladeck, recently questioned the planned sale of email addresses and other information for about 48 million consumers by Borders Group, Inc. (“Borders”) as part of that entity’s bankruptcy proceeding.3 In a public letter, Mr. Vladeck noted that the data held by Borders included records of merchandise purchased (video and books) that could be perceived as personal by many customers.

On September 21, 2011, FTC Bureau of Consumer Protection Director David Vladeck sent a letter to the court appointed consumer privacy ombudsman in the Borders Group, Inc. (Borders) bankruptcy proceeding advising against the sale of Border's customer information absent customer consent or significant restrictions on the transfer and use of the information.