The EU Court of Justice should uphold standard contractual clauses and maintain the EU-U.S. Privacy Shield, Information Technology Industry Council Senior Manager-Policy Alexa Lee said Thursday. A decision in the so-called Schrems II case is expected July 16 (see 1912190001). Any other scenario would “erode trust” in the EU’s general data protection regulation, which “codified several different mechanisms for the predictable outbound transfer of data,” Lee wrote. She outlined four other potential scenarios: the court maintains SCCs as valid but strikes down the PS; invalidates certain SCCs transfers to the U.S. and maintains the PS; invalidates some SCCs transfers to the U.S. and strikes the PS; or invalidates global SCCs transfers and strikes the PS.

The Treasury Department Office of Foreign Assets Control fined Amazon more than $130,000 for allegedly violating U.S. sanctions. The company processed online orders sent to a range of sanctioned countries in the Middle East and Asia, and didn't follow reporting requirements for more than 300 transactions done under a Crimea general license, OFAC said Wednesday. The company also processed orders for people “located in or employed by the foreign missions” of Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Sudan and Syria. Amazon’s sanctions screening program “failed to fully analyze all transaction and customer data,” which led to gaps in compliance, the U.S. said. The maximum penalty was more than $1 billion, but OFAC said Amazon self-disclosed the violations. Additional mitigating factors included that Amazon hadn't committed a violation in the previous five years, cooperated with the investigation and conducted an internal probe. The company didn't comment Thursday.

The Chinese shot back at FBI Director Christopher Wray for accusing China of waging a "massive" cybersecurity war against the U.S. “We regret that U.S. foreign policies are kidnapped by FBI officials like Wray and other anti-China forces,” said a Foreign Affairs Ministry spokesperson Wednesday. “The words of some U.S. officials are full of political lies in negligence of basic facts, exposing their deep-seated Cold War mindset and ideological bias.” Americans are the “victims of what amounts to Chinese theft on a scale so massive that it represents one of the largest transfers of wealth in human history,” Wray told the Hudson Institute Tuesday. “If you’re an American adult, it is more likely than not that China has stolen your personal data.”

The U.S. and China should “redouble” efforts to “implement all aspects” of their phase one trade agreement (see 2001160022), especially “where implementation appears to be lagging,” 41 trade and business associations wrote Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin, U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer and Chinese Vice Premier Liu He. “Significantly increased” Chinese purchases of U.S. goods in “the coming weeks and months would be mutually beneficial," said CTA, the Information Technology Industry Council, National Retail Federation, Telecommunications Industry Association and others. “We strongly support and encourage” increased Trump administration efforts “to work with the US business community and stakeholders in China to increase export promotion efforts at this critical time” of COVID-19, they said Monday. They hope successful implementation of phase one “will create the necessary conditions” for the start of phase two negotiations “as soon as possible,” they said. Phase two is needed to “address important outstanding issues,” including cybersecurity, digital trade and standards setting, they said. USTR, Treasury and the Chinese Foreign Affairs Ministry didn't comment Wednesday.

NTIA launched the communications supply chain risk information partnership (C-SCRIP), as required by 2019's Secure and Trusted Communications Network Act and effective Wednesday, says that day's Federal Register. The Office of the Director of National Intelligence, Department of Homeland Security, FBI and the FCC are working with NTIA. “This program is aimed primarily at trusted small and rural communications providers and equipment suppliers, with the goal of improving their access to risk information about key elements in their supply chain,” NTIA said: “C-SCRIP will allow for regularly scheduled informational briefings, with a goal of providing more targeted information for C-SCRIP participants as the program matures.”

Google and Sonos “meaningfully narrow[ed] the claim construction disputes” in the International Trade Commission’s intellectual property probe into Sonos allegations that Google devices infringe five Sonos multiroom audio patents (see 2002060070), Google said (login required) Thursday in docket 337-TA-1191. “Several critical differences remain with respect to terms.” Google filed to persuade Chief Administrative Law Judge Charles Bullock to resolve the disputes in its favor. Sonos didn’t comment Monday. Two of the Sonos patents “purport to present a solution to two alleged problems in the audio synchronization field,” said Google. The patents “overstate their technical contributions” because they rely on “well-known techniques,” said Google: “Synchronization concepts” used in a local area network “long predate the patents’ claimed inventions.” Sonos “now seeks to narrowly interpret the claims” about LAN to avoid “the abundance of prior art,” said the brief. Google proposes defining a LAN by its “plain and ordinary meaning,” and ITC staff agrees, it said. Sonos proposes regarding a LAN as a data network that links devices within a limited area, said Google. The sides agree another of the patents describes different techniques that might be used to perform “equalization of audio data,” said the brief. “Dispute lies in whether each of these techniques necessarily result in equalization every time.”

U.S. trading partners “must abide by global trade rules so that American businesses can compete on a level playing field,” Americans for Free Trade, a coalition of 160 trade associations, wrote Senate Finance and House Ways and Means committee leaders Wednesday. “We disagree with the continued and indiscriminate use of tariffs to achieve those goals.” Four rounds of Trade Act Section 301 tariffs on Chinese imports are causing “unnecessary harm" while "creating little leverage to achieve further concessions,” it said. The Trump administration vows to keep the tariffs until a phase 2 trade agreement with China, but that “seems less likely with each passing day,” said the coalition. The tariffs “have sown uncertainty in the world’s economy and mistrust with trading partners and have hindered, not helped, the U.S. response to the COVID-19 outbreak,” it said. Congress should also “demand” that the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative “improve” the tariff exclusions process and raise the portion of exemptions “so that it provides meaningful relief.” Of nearly 53,000 exclusion requests U.S. importers filed for relief from the tariffs, 75.4% were denied (see 2006220047). USTR didn’t comment Thursday.

Vizio denies allegations in Sharp’s complaint (see 2005220045) at the International Trade Commission that it “engaged in unfair competition” via Tariff Act Section 337 violations, said the vendor's response (login required) posted Wednesday in docket 337-TA-1201. Commissioners voted May 20 to open an investigation into the allegations Vizio conspired with its panel maker Xianyang CaiHong Optoelectronics and TV set assembler TPV to infringe LCD display patents. The patent claims are “invalid or unenforceable and cannot support any contention for alleged infringement,” said Vizio. Sharp didn’t comment.

The Interagency Labor Committee under the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement on free trade seeks comments by Aug. 15 on the procedures it should use to review complaints about alleged violations of the treaty’s labor provisions, said Tuesday’s Federal Register. USMCA takes effect Wednesday and gives organized labor in the U.S. a process for filing grievances with the Trump administration alleging breaches of Mexico’s new labor laws revamp (see 2006240043). The revisions give Mexican workers collective bargaining rights for the first time and protect them against retaliation for joining unions or refusing to join. The interagency committee, co-chaired by U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer and Labor Secretary Eugene Scalia, will have 30 days to review a complaint and has the authority to rescind a product's duty-free status or bar its importation if it finds serious violations. The committee will accept comments at Regulations.gov in docket USTR-2020-0028.

General data protection regulation compliance and domain name system abuse remain top priorities for ICANN's Governmental Advisory Committee, it said after last week's virtual meeting in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia (see 2006220002). It asked ICANN to prod the Generic Names Supporting Organization about progress on a plan to address unresolved issues in setting up a standardized system for requesting access to nonpublic Whois registration data. Governments want access to Whois data maintained "to the fullest extent possible," which means ICANN should make a clear distinction between legal and natural persons, and allow public access to registration data of the former, which isn't subject to the GDPR, they said. GAC backs ensuring data accuracy, another requirement under the ICANN temporary specification for complying with the GDPR. On DNS abuse, GAC members urged ICANN to prioritize capacity-building and training but said new efforts to tackle the problem "should not replace, but rather complement, existing initiatives" to boost accuracy of registration data and to adopt policies on privacy and proxy services. Governments are focused on policy relating to the next round of new generic top-level domain names, the statement said.