In the context of commercial

takeovers In business, a takeover is the purchase of one company (the ''target'') by another (the ''acquirer'' or ''bidder''). In the UK, the term refers to the acquisition of a public company whose shares are publicly listed, in contrast to the acquisi ...

, safe harbors function as a form of shark repellent used to thwart hostile takeovers. Under implementation of this provision, a target

company A company, abbreviated as co., is a Legal personality, legal entity representing an association of legal people, whether Natural person, natural, Juridical person, juridical or a mixture of both, with a specific objective. Company members ...

will acquire a troublesome firm in order to raise the acquisition price and make acquisition by other parties economically unattractive.

United States

The

Private Securities Litigation Reform Act The Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, , 109 Stat. 737 (codified as amended in scattered sections of 15 U.S.C.) ("PSLRA") implemented several substantive changes in the United States that have affected certain cases brought under t ...

of 1995 includes safe-harbor provisions to protect companies which make financial and investment forecasts in public markets. The

United States Department of Commerce The United States Department of Commerce (DOC) is an executive department of the U.S. federal government. It is responsible for gathering data for business and governmental decision making, establishing industrial standards, catalyzing econ ...

runs a certification program which it calls ''Safe Harbor'' and which aims to harmonize

data privacy Information privacy is the relationship between the collection and dissemination of data, technology, the public expectation of privacy, contextual information norms, and the legal and political issues surrounding them. It is also known as data ...

practices in trading between the United States of America and the stricter privacy controls of the

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational union, supranational political union, political and economic union of Member state of the European Union, member states that are Geography of the European Union, located primarily in Europe. The u ...

Directive 95/46/EC on the protection of personal data. For more information, see Safe Harbor Principles. The Public Health Service publishes a set of Safe Harbor rules within Title 42, Code of Federal Regulations, to preclude Life Science companies from withholding important medical information from the public for fear of being prosecuted for Medicare violations. It is illegal for a firm to advertise or promote a drug, biologic, or medical device for a purpose other than an indication approved by the

Food and Drug Administration The United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA or US FDA) is a List of United States federal agencies, federal agency of the United States Department of Health and Human Services, Department of Health and Human Services. The FDA is respo ...

; recommending such

off-label use Off-label use is the use of pharmaceutical drugs for an unapproved indication or in an unapproved age group, dosage, or route of administration. Both prescription drugs and over-the-counter drugs (OTCs) can be used in off-label ways, although mo ...

for a product subject to reimbursement under Medicare or Medicaid constitutes felony fraud. Safe Harbor establishes rules defining when and how such information may be published (for example, medical journal reports of clinical trials) without the company running afoul of advertising and marketing restrictions.

References

{{Business-term-stub Business terms Takeover defense