Retail & E-Commerce

  • February 25, 2025

    5th Circ. Asks NLRB To Back Up Coercion Claim Against Apple

    A Fifth Circuit panel asked the National Labor Relations Board to spell out how Apple Inc. was coercive to a worker during a unionization push in New York, pondering Tuesday whether affirming the board's finding would tamp down on the company's freedom of expression.

  • February 25, 2025

    Agri Stats Can't Avoid Price-Fixing Deposition, DOJ Says

    The U.S. Department of Justice is calling on Agri Stats' top executives to face deposition in the agency's price-fixing case, telling a Minnesota federal judge that the company's brass can't avoid questioning just because they were deposed in private suits years ago.

  • February 25, 2025

    Referral Co. Barred From $5.54B Swipe Fee MDL Settlement

    A New York federal judge has blocked a referral partner of a claims filing service from any role in the $5.54 billion settlement of long-running multidistrict litigation accusing Visa and Mastercard of charging improper merchant fees, after the referral partner allegedly improperly used class member information to submit claims.

  • February 25, 2025

    Patent Exec Says Starbucks Is Liable For Atty's Statements

    A patent-licensing company executive pushed back on Starbucks Corp.'s attempt to exit his defamation lawsuit over statements from counsel for Starbucks, arguing the Florida federal court has jurisdiction partly because the executive lives in the district.

  • February 25, 2025

    Vape Cos. Want To Stop Iowa Law Banning Some E-Cig Sales

    A group of vape companies and users is again asking an Iowa federal court to block a state law banning the sale of some e-cigarette products, saying it is preempted by federal law and the Constitution.

  • February 24, 2025

    Injury Attys Sanctioned Over AI-Hallucinated Case Citations

    A Wyoming federal judge overseeing a personal injury lawsuit against Walmart sanctioned the plaintiffs' attorneys from Morgan & Morgan PA and the Goody Law Group after they filed pretrial motions containing case law hallucinated by artificial intelligence, but acknowledged Monday their "remedial steps, transparency and apologetic sentiments."

  • February 24, 2025

    Bigelow Says Class Trial Is On 'Road To Nowhere'

    Counsel for R.C. Bigelow Inc. urged a California federal judge Monday to call off an upcoming class action damages trial over the tea-maker's "manufactured in the USA" labels, saying the proceeding would be a "road to nowhere" because of fatally flawed sales data.

  • February 24, 2025

    Baby Bottle Cos. Get Parts Of Microplastics Suit Tossed

    Parents who sued Philips over allegations that microplastics leach from its "BPA free" baby bottles and sippy cups saw their lawsuit partially trimmed, after a California federal judge said that the company's label isn't misleading because it doesn't promise the products are "devoid of all harmful plastic."

  • February 24, 2025

    Bezos Satellite Co. Seeks To Block His Paper In Docs Dispute

    A satellite facility launched by Jeff Bezos' Amazon wants a preliminary injunction to partially block Washington state's labor department from releasing records to the Bezos-owned Washington Post, arguing that the photos and documents are exempt under the state's public records law because they would expose sensitive trade secrets.

  • February 24, 2025

    USPTO Trademark Head, Ex-Solicitor To Depart This Week

    Two more senior leaders are leaving the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office — the current commissioner for trademarks, who is concluding his five-year term, and a longtime agency attorney who said he's departing as part of President Donald Trump's federal worker "deferred resignation" program. 

  • February 24, 2025

    DraftKings Rips 'Flawed' Privacy Suit Over Meta Tracking Pixel

    DraftKings Inc. wants a New York federal judge to toss a "fundamentally flawed" suit that accuses the company of disclosing customer information to third parties for targeted advertising, arguing the plaintiff is attempting to expand the Video Privacy Protection Act beyond its intended purpose.

  • February 24, 2025

    CVS Says Union Vote Certifications Require NLRB Quorum

    CVS has argued that National Labor Relations Board regional offices cannot certify the results of union representation elections while the agency lacks a quorum, advancing the latest argument employers have adopted seeking to block the board's actions.

  • February 24, 2025

    Boehringer Ingelheim Wins Illinois Zantac Cancer Retrial

    An Illinois state jury swiftly sided with Boehringer Ingelheim on Monday over two men's claims that taking the company's over-the-counter Zantac for decades contributed to their prostate cancer diagnoses, handing each of the men a trial loss after juries in their previous trials had deadlocked.

  • February 24, 2025

    Calif. City Gets Suit Over Pot License Application Tossed

    A California federal judge has thrown out a retailer's suit that in part alleges the city of Chula Vista ignored a court order and delayed scoring its application for cannabis licenses, saying the complaint fails to establish that the city violated its constitutional rights.

  • February 24, 2025

    Trade Court Upholds Duties On Chinese Cabinets

    The U.S. Court of International Trade upheld a determination that products made by Chinese manufacturer Nanjing Kaylang Co. are subject to 2020 antidumping-duty and countervailing-duty orders on wooden cabinets and vanities.

  • February 24, 2025

    Justices Turn Away Challenge To Philly Gun Shop Ban

    The U.S. Supreme Court said Monday it won't take up a Philadelphia gun range's challenge to a city rule banning gun shops in residential neighborhoods, after a Pennsylvania appellate court said in 2024 that the Second Amendment didn't cover zoning rules restricting where firearms could be sold.

  • February 21, 2025

    FTC's Holyoak Has Her Eyes On DeepSeek

    Federal Trade Commission member Melissa Holyoak suggested Friday that DeepSeek, the Chinese artificial intelligence startup whose rise has roiled AI markets, could have competed unfairly if it really trained its model using ChatGPT in violation of OpenAI's policies, as has been suggested.

  • February 21, 2025

    ITC To Review Hoverboard Maker's Patent Case

    The U.S. International Trade Commission is going to look into the latest patent complaint from the inventor of a self-balancing hoverboard who is targeting rival products from China.

  • February 21, 2025

    Unilever Settles Class Suit Over Benzene In Shampoo

    Unilever has reached a deal in principle that should end a proposed class action accusing the consumer goods giant and its suppliers of selling carcinogen-tainted dry shampoo, according to a joint notice filed Thursday in Connecticut federal court.

  • February 21, 2025

    Trump Says Tariffs Coming For Countries With DSTs

    President Donald Trump's administration will impose tariffs on countries with taxes that disproportionately affect American companies, such as digital services taxes, which mainly apply to tech giants, according to a memorandum released late Friday.

  • February 21, 2025

    Whirlpool Seeks More Damages And Fees After $27M TM Win

    Michigan-based appliance company Whirlpool Corp. has requested enhanced damages and attorney fees after a Texas federal jury found last month that Chinese company Shenzhen Sanlida Electrical Technology Co. Ltd. owed Whirlpool $27 million for willfully infringing and diluting the trademark for its iconic KitchenAid stand mixers.

  • February 21, 2025

    Puma, Brooks End IP Fight Over 'Nitro' Running Shoes

    Puma and Brooks Sports have agreed to drop dueling intellectual property claims over "Nitro"-branded sole foam technology used by both athletic apparel retailers to market running shoes, according to a notice filed in federal court in Seattle on Friday.

  • February 21, 2025

    Crocs Hit With Stockholder Suit Over Heydude Revenue Woes

    An investor hit Crocs Inc. and its top management Friday with a derivative suit alleging they knew that revenue growth from a newly acquired brand was driven by overstocking inventory and wasn't sustainable, claiming company insiders profited off strong revenue reports that later hurt stockholders when inventory problems reared their ugly head.

  • February 21, 2025

    Mich. Pot Cos. Say Grand Rapids' Equity Fees Are Illegal

    A group of cannabis companies is suing the city of Grand Rapids in Michigan state court, saying it is illegally charging them millions in fees through its social equity program.

  • February 21, 2025

    6 Things To Know About Shein's Fast Fashion Feuds

    Ultra-fast fashion behemoth Shein is facing accusations of infringing intellectual property in dozens of cases from plaintiffs ranging from major fashion brands to individual artists. Here are six things to know about Shein's intellectual property battles.

Expert Analysis

  • How Property Insurance Coverage Shrank After The Pandemic

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    Insurers litigating property claims are leveraging rulings that provided relief in the COVID-19 context to reverse the former majority rule on physical loss or damage in all contexts, say attorneys at Reed Smith.

  • E-Discovery Quarterly: Recent Rulings On Metadata

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    Several recent rulings reflect the competing considerations that arise when parties dispute the form of production for electronically stored information, underscoring that counsel must carefully consider how to produce and request reasonably usable data, say attorneys at Sidley.

  • The 3rd-Party Bankruptcy Release Landscape After Purdue

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    In its Purdue Pharma ruling prohibiting nonconsensual third-party releases, the U.S. Supreme Court did not comment on criteria to render a third-party release consensual, opening a debate in the bankruptcy courts on the permissibility of opt-out versus opt-in releases, say attorneys at Morgan Lewis.

  • When 'Patented' Goes Beyond Inventorship In False Ad Cases

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    The Federal Circuit's recent false advertising holding in Crocs v. Effervescent is significant because it offers a nuanced yet realistic understanding of what false claims about a product's status as "patented" can mean, say attorneys at McDermott.

  • Comparing Antitrust Outlooks Amid Google Remedy Review

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    As the U.S. Justice Department mulls potential structural remedies after winning its recent case against Google, increased global scrutiny of Big Tech leaves ex post and ex ante antitrust approaches ripe for evaluation, say Nishant Chadha at the Indian School of Business and Manisha Goel at Pomona College.

  • Website Accessibility Ruling Leaves Circuit Split Unresolved

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    A New York federal court's recent decision in Mejia v. High Brew Coffee, holding that stand-alone websites are not "public accommodations" subject to the Americans with Disabilities Act, further complicates a long-running circuit split on this question — even as courts are burdened with thousands of similar lawsuits, say attorneys at Mandelbaum Barrett.

  • Striking A Balance Between AI Use And Attorney Well-Being

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    As the legal industry increasingly adopts generative artificial intelligence tools to boost efficiency, leaders must note the hidden costs of increased productivity, and work to protect attorneys’ well-being while unlocking AI’s full potential, says Ed Sohn at Factor.

  • Empathy In Mediation Offers A Soft Landing For Disputes

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    Experiencing a crash-landing on a recent flight underscored to me how much difference empathy makes in times of crisis or stress, including during mediation, says Eydith Kaufman at Alternative Resolution Centers.

  • Series

    Being An Artist Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    My work as an artist has highlighted how using creativity and precision together — qualities that are equally essential in both art and law — not only improves outcomes, but also leads to more innovative and thoughtful work, says Sarah La Pearl at Segal McCambridge.

  • How Judiciary Can Minimize AI Risks In Secondary Sources

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    Because courts’ standing orders on generative artificial intelligence and other safeguards do not address the risk of hallucinations in secondary source materials, the judiciary should consider enlisting legal publishers and database hosts to protect against AI-generated inaccuracies, say attorneys at Lankler Siffert & Wohl.

  • False Patent Marking Claims Find New Home In Lanham Act

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    While the Patent Act may have closed the courthouse doors for many false patent marking claims, the Federal Circuit, in its recent decision in Crocs v. Effervescent, may be opening a window to these types of claims under the Lanham Act, says John Cordani at Robinson & Cole.

  • A Look At Calif. Biz Code And The Fight Over Customer Lists

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    To ensure Uniform Trade Secret Act security, California staffing agencies and their attorneys should review Section 16607 of the state Business Code, which prohibits contracts that restrain employees from engaging in other lawful types of business, to understand the process for determining whether a customer list constitutes a trade secret, says Skye Daley at Buchalter.

  • How Attorneys Can Break Free From Career Enmeshment

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    Ambitious attorneys can sometimes experience career enmeshment — when your sense of self-worth becomes unhealthily tangled up in your legal vocation — but taking the time to discover and realign with your core personal values can help you recover your identity, says Janna Koretz at Azimuth Psychological.

  • Where Can Privacy Plaintiffs Sue When Injury Is Online?

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    Website owners need to understand wiretapping laws to understand whether they may be sued for activity tracking in California or Pennsylvania courts, where the statutory damages for violations of half-century-old laws can be substantial — and a recent Third Circuit decision suggests establishing specific jurisdiction is not as easy as 1-2-3, say attorneys at Crowell & Moring.

  • Short-Seller Implications Of 10th Circ.'s Overstock Decision

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    The Tenth Circuit's Oct. 15 decision in Overstock Securities Litigation provides clarity on the pleading standard for a market manipulation claim under the Exchange Act, and suggests that short sellers might not be able to rely on the fraud-on-the-market presumption typically invoked by securities plaintiffs, say attorneys at Paul Weiss.

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