With renewed enforcement of the Robinson-Patman Act against illegal price discrimination looming, direct-selling companies should reassess their pricing models. The FTC has made clear that tiered wholesale pricing, which gives higher-ranked distributors more favorable terms than their lower-ranked counterparts, can create significant legal risks under antitrust laws.

The One Big Beautiful Bill Act, enacted on July 4, 2025, modernizes and expands the already favorable tax treatment that applies to investments in qualified small business stock (QSBS). These changes benefit venture capital funds that intend to avail themselves of the tax benefits under the QSBS rules by (i) expanding the universe of companies that the funds can invest in, (ii) increasing the amount of gains that their respective investors can receive that are not subject to federal income tax and (iii) providing the funds with more flexibility in terms of timing their exits from these types of investments. The expansion of the QSBS rules under the Act should be a welcome development for venture capital funds and their investors.

Last year in September, we published an alert about the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) final rule, which would have imposed certain anti-money laundering and combating the financing of terrorism (AML/CFT) program and other Bank Secrecy Act-related obligations on investment advisers (IA AML Rule) effective January 1, 2026.