The J.O.B.S. Act

In November 2011 the House of Representatives, spurred on by sluggish economic growth following the Great Recession, overwhelmingly passed H.R. 2930, the Entrepreneur Access to Capital Act, which includes features intended to provide small businesses with access to capital without significant regulatory and cost burdens.  On March 8, 2012, the House of Representatives passed the Jumpstart Our Business Startups (JOBS) Act, which includes the crowdfunding provisions of H.R. 2930 (the “House Bill”).

Crowd funding describes the collective cooperation, attention and trust by people who network and pool their money and other resources together, usually via the internet, to support efforts initiated by other people or organization. Crowdfunding can occur for many reasons from charity to artistic endeavors, to small business start-ups, to political campaigns, to funding a small business.

The team at Melfi & Associates understand the regulations associated with crowd funding and has experience with clients in the digital marketing and e-commerce space.

Law Review Articles of Interest:

1. Heminway, Joan MacLeod. Hoffman, Shelden Ryan “Proceed at Your Peril: Crowdfunding and the Securities Act of 1933.” Tennessee Law Review, Vol. 78, p. 879, 2011
Link: http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1875584

2. Hazen, Thomas Lee. “Crowdfunding or Fraudfunding? Social Networks and the Securities Laws – Why the Specially Tailored Exemption Must be Conditioned on Meaningful Disclosure.” North Carolina Law Review, Forthcoming May 20, 2012.
Link: http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1954040