Yahoo Finance Here are the biggest business law issues to watch in 2023
Courts are back in session and already addressing some of the most consequential business law issues anticipated this year — from the potential overhaul of liability protections for third-party content online, to the implosion of cryptocurrency firm FTX, to student loan debt relief.
On Tuesday, embattled FTX crypto empire founder Sam Bankman-Fried, appeared in federal court in Manhattan and pleaded not guilty to financial fraud charges tied to his role in the collapsed digital currency trading enterprise.
Bankman-Fried's case, set for trial in October, is just one of dozens of business legal disputes expected to come to a head this year. Big Tech companies including Apple (AAPL), Amazon (AMZN), Google (GOOG), Meta (META), and Twitter have new content, software, and transparency rules to abide by in the European Union. And companies of all sizes could see new rules in the U.S. for the user-generated content that they host online.
Here are some of the legal cases, legislation, and regulation that Yahoo Finance is watching in 2023.
Internet rules
A 24-year-old law that’s foundational to the internet and the social media landscape that we know today will get the U.S. Supreme Court’s attention in 2023.
The high court will consider how far Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act can go to insulate the owners of internet sites from liability over user-generated content. The law keeps websites from YouTube to mom-and-pop retailers that host user reviews from getting sued over what third parties post to their sites.
And Big Tech is bracing for newly-implemented laws in Europe.
Dominant tech companies designated as “gatekeepers” like Amazon, Apple, Meta, and Microsoft (MSFT) will have to abide by the EU’s Digital Markets Act and Digital Services Act. The laws say Big Tech companies can’t favor their own products and services over those of third parties, and require messaging services to work smoothly between apps and devices.
The Digital Services Act also opens the door to liability for major tech companies that host user-generated content. Its rules allow for third parties to report suspected illegal content and for hosts to quickly block or remove content once notice has been made.
Under the new rules, end users must also be given capability to easily un-install pre-installed apps or change default settings across operating systems.
Student loan debt relief
The U.S. Supreme Court will take on two cases this year from borrowers and six Republican-led state attorneys general, both of which are challenging whether President Biden has the power to cancel student loan debt for certain American taxpayers.
In August, the president issued an executive order to forgive up to $10,000 in educational debt for single filers reporting less than $125,000 in adjusted gross income and for married filers making less than $25,000. Pell Grant recipients could qualify for an additional $10,000 in forgiveness.
The measure quickly became ensnared in lawsuits that put the relief on hold. The high court is scheduled to hear arguments in the cases during 2023”s first quarter.
Theranos founder appeals
One of the most closely-watched trials of 2022 will play out on appeal this year, and possibly beyond, as fallen Silicon Valley entrepreneur, Elizabeth Holmes, challenges criminal fraud convictions reached by a federal jury in January 2022.
Holmes, who founded the blood-testing startup, Theranos, was sentenced to 11 years and three months in prison for lying to investors who backed her company to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars. At its peak, Theranos was valued at $9 billion – and made Holmes, at the time, the world’s wealthiest self-made woman.
WATCH: Yahoo Finance documentary Valley of Hype: The culture that built Elizabeth Holmes
Musk and Twitter
And serial CEO Elon Musk is under a microscope after closing a contentious take-private acquisition of Twitter in October.
The CEO of Tesla, SpaceX, and Neuralink — now the top executive at Twitter, at least for now — is drawing scrutiny from Tesla market watchers and regulators.
The U.S. Federal Trade Commission wants to know if Twitter’s staff — which was cut by half in November — is capable of complying with the agency’s pre-Musk agreement to protect private user data.
And critics of the deal fear that Musk may be spreading his time too thin, and that Musk's looming loan payments to cover debt taken on for part of Twitter’s $44 billion price tag increases pressure on Musk to sell more Tesla stock.
Epic v. Apple
An appellate court is expected to decide this year if Apple violated antitrust laws when it blocked video game developer, Epic Games, from its App Store.
In September following a federal trial in California, a district court judge issued a permanent injunction to stop Apple from blocking direct in-app purchases and from blocking developers from communicating directly with customers.
Though the district court judge said Apple didn't violate federal antitrust law, she did conclude that the tech giant violated California's unfair competition law.
FTX fallout continues
The $32 billion implosion that sent the second-largest crypto empire, FTX, into bankruptcy, is now also a criminal matter, after the U.S Justice Department filed fraud charges against the company’s founder and CEO, Sam Bankman-Fried. Fried is also facing civil actions from the SEC and CFTC.
At the request of U.S. authorities, the former crypto chief was arrested in the Bahamas in December. A federal jury in the U.S. handed down an eight-count indictment against Bankman-Fried, accusing him of financial fraud and conspiracy, money laundering, and violations of campaign contribution laws.
The bankruptcy along with the charges brought by US authorities promise to be among the most closely- watched business law stories of 2023.
Alexis Keenan is a legal reporter for Yahoo Finance. Follow Alexis on Twitter @alexiskweed.
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