On September 24, 2020, the U.S. Department of Commerce published a Federal Register notice listing prohibited transactions with ByteDance Ltd. and its subsidiaries including TikTok, Inc., pursuant to President Trump’s August 6, 2020 Executive Order declaring TikTok a national security threat and directing Commerce to define the scope of prohibited “transactions” with TikTok by September

On September 18, 2020, the U.S. Department of Commerce announced prohibitions on transactions relating to the mobile applications WeChat and TikTok in order to “safeguard the national security of the United States” that were to become effective on September 20 and November 12, 2020. This announcement followed President Trump’s August 6, 2020 executive orders declaring

On August 27, 2020, the Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Industry and Security (“BIS”) published in the Federal Register an advance notice of proposed rulemaking (ANPRM) for foundational technologies and asked for public comment on the categories of technologies for which BIS should issue controls. Specifically, BIS is soliciting public comments through October 26, 2020,

On August 24, 2020, TikTok Inc. and its Chinese parent, ByteDance, Ltd., filed suit in the Central District of California against President Donald J. Trump, Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross and the U.S. Department of Commerce, in an effort to prevent the government from banning its video-sharing mobile application pursuant to the Executive Order issued

On August 14, 2020, after an extensive review and unanimous recommendation by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS), President Donald Trump issued an Executive Order directing that the already completed transaction that resulted in the acquisition of Musical.ly, now known as TikTok, by the Chinese company ByteDance Ltd. be unwound. The

The Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS), an inter-agency committee headed by the Department of the Treasury, has released its annual report for 2018. CFIUS is authorized to review transactions that could result in the control of U.S. businesses by foreign persons or companies, as well as non-controlling investments by foreign

On April 29, 2020, the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Investment Security published an interim rule in the Federal Register that establishes a range of fees for formal written voluntary notices filed on or after May 1, 2020 with the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS). The interim rule largely

On February 13, 2020, the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) fully implemented the Foreign Investment Risk Review Modernization Act (FIRRMA) (see Trump and Trade Update of January 22, 2020). Under FIRRMA, CFIUS was granted additional authority to review certain real estate transactions involving foreign persons when the public or