United States: Contracts and Commercial Law

Agentic AI systems promise transformative capabilities but carry substantial risks when deployed with inadequate evaluation. How can organizations design pilot programs that generate real evidence of value and risk, moving beyond vendor demonstrations to assess whether AI agents can safely and profitably perform their intended roles?

The Federal Trade Commission's settlement with Southern Glazer's Wine and Spirits over Robinson-Patman Act violations establishes new benchmarks for price discrimination enforcement, including specific geographic proximity requirements, temporal windows for comparing transactions, and cost-based allowances that could reshape compliance strategies across consumer retail industries.

California's Assembly Bill 2116 establishes a comprehensive licensing and supervisory framework for commercial financing providers and brokers, significantly expanding the California Department of Financial Protection and Innovation's oversight of the small-business financing market. The law requires many commercial financing providers and brokers involved in transactions of $500,000 or less to obtain a license, comply with new reporting and recordkeeping obligations, and adhere to enhanced business conduct

The Texas Department of Transportation has completed the $679 million Oak Hill Parkway project in Austin, transforming a notorious traffic bottleneck with new highway mainlanes, frontage roads, and flyovers. The state-of-the-art infrastructure project was delivered through a design-build contract that balanced transportation needs with community priorities including pedestrian access and environmental protection.

Can a single trademark application protect your brand across 130+ countries? Learn how the Madrid System works, where it falls short, and why territorial trademark rights require strategic planning for each market—especially China.

When a concrete equipment manufacturer terminated its Oklahoma dealer and invoked a forum-selection clause requiring litigation in Iowa, the dealer sued locally under state dealer-protection laws. The federal court's ruling on whether the forum clause could override Oklahoma's Fair Practices Act turned on subtle statutory language that distinguished it from similar laws in other states.

Henry Ford Health has filed a federal lawsuit against CVS Health and its affiliates, alleging the improper diversion of over $29 million in savings from the federal 340B Drug Pricing Program through manipulated reimbursements for specialty drugs. The healthcare system claims CVS used back-end pricing mechanisms to retain funds that should have been remitted under their pharmacy services agreements, with similar allegations emerging from other major health systems across the country.

On September 30, 2026, Governor Gavin Newsom signed Assembly Bill 1776 (AB 1776), also known as the Competition and Opportunity in Markets for a Prosperous, Equitable, and Transparent Economy (COMPETE) Act.

Oilfield service firms responding to the Dallas Fed Energy Survey for the third quarter of 2026 reported substantially broader increases in input costs than in the prices they received. The input-cost index was 60.4, compared with a prices-received index of 16.3. Each index represents the percentage of respondents reporting an increase minus the percentage reporting a decrease.