Retail & E-Commerce

  • April 18, 2025

    FTC's Southern Glazer's Pricing Case Preserved

    A California federal judge refused Thursday to toss the Federal Trade Commission's price discrimination lawsuit against Southern Glazer's Wine and Spirits LLC, concluding the alcohol distribution giant moves liquor around enough to trigger interstate commerce and that the FTC has adequately alleged unfair treatment of mom-and-pop stores relative to big box retailers.

  • April 18, 2025

    Judge Sides With Wash. In NY Distillery's Sales Reg Challenge

    A federal judge has rejected a New York whiskey maker's challenge to a Washington rule that distilleries must have a physical in-state location to sell to Evergreen State consumers online, saying the regulation isn't discriminatory because it "applies evenhandedly" regardless of the producer's home state.

  • April 18, 2025

    Insurer Says Smoke Shop Not Covered In Nitrous Oxide Suit

    An insurer for a smoke shop told a Florida federal court it owes no coverage for a proposed class action accusing various shops of selling nitrous oxide products for recreational drug use, pointing to an exclusion barring coverage for injury arising out of "psychotropic substances."

  • April 18, 2025

    NC High Court Snapshot: Livestock Litigation Takes Limelight

    The North Carolina Supreme Court's April lineup will find the justices delving into a squabble over backyard chickens in a residential neighborhood and a consumer fraud class action with Home Depot in the crosshairs.

  • April 18, 2025

    Latham-Led Vacasa Sticks With Casago, Rejects $131M Bid

    Latham & Watkins LLP-advised Vacasa said Friday that its board has rejected a revised acquisition bid from Davidson Kempner Capital Management, indicating that price alone wasn't enough to result in a superior deal to the company's existing agreement with Casago.

  • April 18, 2025

    Union Hits Kroger Chain With Counterclaim In Strike Suit

    The Kroger-owned grocery chain King Soopers violated a post-strike agreement with a United Food & Commercial Workers local by pressuring the union to agree to a collective bargaining agreement by an arbitrary deadline, the union alleged in a counterclaim in the company's strike lawsuit against it in Colorado federal court.

  • April 18, 2025

    Federal Cannabis Law Reform Eyed In Bipartisan Push

    A bipartisan group of representatives has introduced legislation to reconcile the conflicts between the federal prohibition on cannabis and state laws that legalize it, and to prepare the country for federal legalization.

  • April 17, 2025

    Sandberg Says FTC Market View Makes No Sense In Meta Case

    Meta Platforms' former longtime board member and Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg pushed back Thursday on crucial Federal Trade Commission arguments trying to shape the market the social media giant is accused of monopolizing, criticizing a friends and family definition the FTC is using to exclude TikTok as a competitor.

  • April 17, 2025

    DC Circ. Says Lateness Doomed Starbucks' NLRB Challenge

    The National Labor Relations Board was not obligated to accommodate Starbucks after its attorney filed a challenge to a board judge's ruling 23 minutes late, the D.C. Circuit ruled Thursday, holding that the board did not abuse its discretion by refusing to process the challenge.

  • April 17, 2025

    Wash. Justices Back Consumers In Old Navy Spam Email Suit

    Washington's highest court said in a 5-4 ruling Thursday that the state's spam law bars commercial emails that include any false information in their subject lines, endorsing two consumers' broader interpretation of the statute in a proposed class action against Old Navy.

  • April 17, 2025

    Ibotta Misrepresented Kroger Deal, Shareholder Suit Alleges

    Digital consumer discount company Ibotta Inc. was hit with a proposed shareholder class action claiming its registration statement for its April 2024 initial public offering omitted information regarding the nature of its relationship with grocery retailer The Kroger Co., prompting stocks to plummet when investors learned the relationship had ended.

  • April 17, 2025

    ITC Blocks Chinese Co.'s Plastics Tech Over Patent Dispute

    The U.S. International Trade Commission issued a limited order barring a Chinese company from importing parts used in molding machines that make plastic bottles, following an infringement case from a Canadian rival — though the trade agency split in its decision not to issue a cease-and-desist order targeting imported parts that already made it into the U.S. 

  • April 17, 2025

    9th Circ. Tosses Objections To $10.4M CVS Wage Settlement

    A pharmacist's objections to a $10.4 million settlement of a wage and hour class action affecting 24,000 CVS employees hold no weight, a Ninth Circuit panel found, ruling Thursday that a California federal judge adequately considered the merits of each objection before tossing them.

  • April 17, 2025

    Pot Cos. Can't Get Block On Mich. City Licensing Fees

    A Michigan federal judge won't block the enforcement of cannabis licensing fees by the city of Grand Rapids, finding the companies objecting to the fees haven't shown they face irreparable harm without an injunction.

  • April 17, 2025

    Fla. 'King Of Vape' Brings Defamation Suit Against NY Post

    A Florida retail store owner who operates under the name "The King of Vape" brought a federal defamation lawsuit against News Corp., saying the New York Post ran a recent story falsely describing him as an anti-Israel advocate and terrorist supporter who was recently sued for selling illicit e-cigarettes.

  • April 17, 2025

    'Moonshine' Fudge Maker Must Pay Fees For Failed IP Claims

    The maker of "Chocolate Moonshine" fudge may have won a trade secrets case against his ex-wife and her new chocolate company, but he must pay the defendants more than $174,000 in attorney fees and costs for his unsuccessful trademark and copyright infringement claims.

  • April 17, 2025

    Sacramento Says Dormant Commerce Doesn't Apply To Pot

    The city of Sacramento told the Ninth Circuit on Wednesday that a federal district judge was correct to toss a constitutional challenge to the city's cannabis licensure program, saying the dormant commerce clause does not apply to a federally illegal industry.

  • April 17, 2025

    Judge Rules Google Monopolized Ad Tech In 2nd Win For DOJ

    A Virginia federal judge on Thursday handed the U.S. Department of Justice Antitrust Division its second seminal win against Google, ruling that the search giant has illegally monopolized markets for display advertising placement technology.

  • April 17, 2025

    Chinese Tea Chain Prices $411M US IPO Amid Trade Tension

    Chinese teahouse company Chagee Holdings Ltd., represented by Davis Polk & Wardwell LLP and underwriters' counsel Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton LLP, on Thursday priced a $411 million initial public offering at the top of its range despite U.S.-China trade tensions.

  • April 16, 2025

    Zuckerberg Calls TikTok Meta's 'Highest Competitive Threat'

    Meta Platforms Inc. CEO Mark Zuckerberg pushed back Wednesday on Federal Trade Commission efforts to cabin the company's allegedly monopolistic social media dominance into a market that excludes TikTok and YouTube, telling a D.C. federal judge video has become the new predominant form of social media interaction.

  • April 16, 2025

    AlmondNet Sues Amazon Again After $136M Ad IP Victory

    AlmondNet Inc. is aiming to expand on the $136 million it already won against Amazon for patent infringement with a new suit in Texas federal court accusing the technology giant of infringing another patent tied to directing television advertisements.

  • April 16, 2025

    Carvana Stockholders Urge Revival Of Insider Trading Suit

    Stockholder attorneys who saw unjust enrichment and fiduciary breach claims against Carvana Inc.'s directors, officers and controller scuttled in Delaware's Court of Chancery last year urged the state's justices Wednesday to revive claims against its controller, who allegedly relied on inside information while selling $3.7 billion of shares.

  • April 16, 2025

    Musk Rips Calif. AG Decision To Not Join Suit Against OpenAI

    Elon Musk blasted a California attorney general's office decision declining to join his federal lawsuit against OpenAI, saying in a Tuesday filing the decision appears to "misapprehend" the complaint and its derivative claims and "mischaracterizes or misunderstands" the consortium of investors he's assembled to bid on OpenAI Inc.'s assets.

  • April 16, 2025

    Airport Shops' $6.9M Data Breach Deal Cleared For Landing

    A Georgia federal judge has given preliminary approval to a nearly $6.9 million settlement that would end a suit between airport retailer Paradies Shops and a proposed class of employees who claim their data was compromised in a 2020 ransomware attack.

  • April 16, 2025

    Napster Owner Infinite Reality Adds AI Power With $500M Deal

    Gibson Dunn-advised Infinite Reality said Wednesday it will acquire AI firm Touchcast for $500 million, as the company seeks more AI power to deepen user engagement across a growing digital platform portfolio that includes a rebooted Napster.

Expert Analysis

  • An Unrestrained, Bright-Eyed View Of Legal AI's Future

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    Todd Itami at Covington offers a bright-eyed, laughing-all-the-way, skydive look at what the legal industry could look like after an artificial intelligence revolution, which he believes may happen much sooner and more dramatically than we expect.

  • Tracking The Evolution In Litigation Finance

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    Despite continued innovation, litigation finance remains an immature market with borrowers recieving significantly different terms as lenders learn to value cases, which firms need a strong handle on to ensure lending terms do not overwhelm collateral value, says Robert Wilkins at Lightfoot Franklin.

  • Lessons From Pa. Wiretapping Class Action Dismissal

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    A recent wiretapping class action in Pennsylvania federal court resulting in the dispositive dismissal of the action provides key insights on how online notice and consent can be leveraged to directly address and mitigate legal risks and class action liability exposure, say attorneys at Baker Donelson.

  • Opinion

    In Vape Case, Justices Must Focus On Agencies' Results

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    With the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling in U.S. Food and Drug Administration v. Wages and White Lion Investments having put off the question of whether agency decisions arrived at erroneously are always invalid, the court should give the results of agency actions more weight than the reasoning behind them when it revisits this case, says Jonathan Sheffield at Loyola University Chicago School of Law.

  • Series

    Volunteer Firefighting Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    While practicing corporate law and firefighting may appear incongruous, the latter benefits my legal career by reminding me of the importance of humility, perspective and education, says Nicholas Passaro at Ford.

  • Influencer Campaign Lawsuits Signal New Endorsement Risks

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    Recent class actions allege that companies' influencer campaigns violate the Federal Trade Commission's Endorsement Guides and various state laws, but it's not clear whether the failure to comply can sustain these lawsuits, or whether the plaintiffs' creative theory of damages will hold up to scrutiny, says Gonzalo Mon at Kelley Drye.

  • 5 Ways Banking Has Changed In 5 Years Since COVID

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    Since the start of the pandemic five years ago, technology, convenience and shifting expectations have transformed compliance for the financial services industry in several key ways, from the shrinking role of the traditional bank branch to the rise of fintech and mobile payments, says Christopher Pippett at Fox Rothschild.

  • E-Discovery Quarterly: The Perils Of Digital Data Protocols

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    Though stipulated protocols governing the treatment of electronically stored information in litigation are meant to streamline discovery, recent disputes demonstrate that certain missteps in the process can lead to significant inefficiencies, say attorneys at Sidley.

  • Making Sense Of Small Biz Fair Lending Compliance

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    Despite the uncertainty brought on by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's recent efforts to revise fair lending data collection requirements under Section 1071 of the Dodd-Frank Act, the compliance dates have not yet been stayed, so covered institutions should still start to monitor any disparities now, say attorneys at Frost Brown Todd.

  • Defense Strategies After Justices' Personal Injury RICO Ruling

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    In Medical Marijuana v. Horn, the U.S. Supreme Court recently held that the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act can be invoked by some plaintiffs with claims arising from personal injuries — but defense counsel can use the limitations on civil RICO claims to seek early dismissal in such cases, say attorneys at Debevoise.

  • Series

    Law School's Missed Lessons: Preparing For Corporate Work

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    Law school often doesn't cover the business strategy, financial fluency and negotiation skills needed for a successful corporate or transactional law practice, but there are practical ways to gain relevant experience and achieve the mindset shifts critical to a thriving career in this space, says Dakota Forsyth at Olshan Frome.

  • 5 Insurance Types For Mitigating Tariff-Related Trade Losses

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    The potential for significant trade-related losses as a result of increased tariffs may cause companies to consider which of their insurance policies, including marine, builders risk, trade credit, and directors and officers, could provide coverage to alleviate the financial impact, say attorneys at Pillsbury.

  • How Cos. Can Mitigate Increasing Microplastics Liability Risk

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    Amid rising scrutiny in the U.S. and Europe of microplastics' impact on health and the growing threat of litigation against consumer product and food and beverage manufacturers, companies can limit liability through compliance with labeling laws, careful contract management and other practices, say attorneys at Rogers Joseph.

  • A Cold War-Era History Lesson On Due Process

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    The landmark Harry Bridges case from the mid-20th century Red Scare offers important insights on why lawyers must be free of government reprisal, no matter who their client is, says Peter Afrasiabi at One LLP.

  • Home Depot Ruling Tolls Death Knell For 'Silent Cyber'

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    The Sixth Circuit's recent ruling that Home Depot's insurers did not have to cover costs from a data breach hammered one more nail in the coffin of silent cyber, where coverage is sought under standard property or commercial general liability policies that were not intended to insure cyberattack claims, say attorneys at Zelle.

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