Retail & E-Commerce

  • May 30, 2024

    Dollar General Gets To Close Door On Injury Suit

    The Georgia Court of Appeals has shut down a patron's suit against Dollar General Store alleging she injured her hand closing a faulty door, saying the hazard was not hidden, she had as much knowledge of it as employees, and she'd negotiated the door successfully earlier the same day.

  • May 30, 2024

    Wine Distribution Giants Must Face Provi's Antitrust Suit

    The nation's two largest wine and distilled spirits distributors must face unfair competition claims from an online marketplace accusing them of illegally trying to stifle competition and shut it out of the market, an Illinois federal judge determined Thursday.

  • May 30, 2024

    Minn. Gov. Signs Law For Earlier Cannabis Industry Launch

    Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz has signed a bill that imposes a number of changes to the state's marijuana law, including provisions that could allow social equity cannabis applicants to start cultivating the plant for the new market by the end of the year.

  • May 30, 2024

    Commerce Pours Up 203% Duties For Chinese Wine Bottles

    The U.S. Department of Commerce set early duties of 202.70% on wine bottles made by eight Chinese manufacturers who did not respond to the agency's questions, while the lone cooperator landed a preliminary rate of 21.14%.

  • May 30, 2024

    Target's Surveillance System Violates BIPA, Shoppers Say

    Target faces a proposed class action in Illinois federal court filed Thursday accusing it of gathering shoppers' biometric data through surveillance systems and other sophisticated technology in its campaign to prevent organized retail theft, while failing to advise it is doing so or obtaining their permission.

  • May 30, 2024

    Conn. Judge Axes Pot Dispensary Permit Challenge

    A collection of Stamford, Connecticut, citizens has no right to appeal a court-approved settlement between the city's zoning board and a cannabis company, which allows Sweetspot Stamford LLC to operate a retail dispensary, a state court judge has ruled.

  • May 30, 2024

    VR Fitness App Ends $353M Antitrust Row With Meta, For Now

    An app developer that sued Meta, Mark Zuckerberg and others seeking $353 million for alleged antitrust violations after the social media platform reneged on a deal to launch the plaintiff's virtual reality fitness app voluntarily dropped his case, for now, according to a notice filed Wednesday in California federal court.

  • May 30, 2024

    Bottler Says It's Owed Defense In Wine Contamination Dispute

    A wine bottler told a California federal court its insurer must reimburse defense costs it incurred while fighting a now-settled suit seeking to hold the company liable for a $1.2 million wine contamination, arguing the lawsuit didn't specifically allege what the bottler's actions were nor the cause of contamination.

  • May 30, 2024

    Sneaker Co. Golden Goose Plots Top Italy IPO In Over A Year

    Luxury sneaker brand Golden Goose Group SpA on Thursday unveiled plans to go public in Italy, aiming to raise €100 million ($108 million) in what would mark Italy's largest IPO in the last year.

  • May 30, 2024

    Data Co. Exec, Worker Guilty Of Fraud In Mail Scam Case

    A Colorado federal jury on Thursday convicted two former Epsilon Data Management employees for their roles in selling data to mail scammers who preyed on the elderly and vulnerable.

  • May 29, 2024

    Amazon Shouldn't Escape BIPA Suit, Judge Recommends

    A Washington federal magistrate judge on Wednesday recommended that the court should not toss a suit alleging Amazon.com Inc. collected facial scans of teens playing a popular video game without proper disclosures or consent, saying the plaintiff sufficiently alleges that Amazon knowingly obtained the data and disseminated it.

  • May 29, 2024

    Meta's Policy On Threats List 'Sounds Nefarious,' Judge Says

    The California federal judge overseeing claims Meta blacklists certain adult performers questioned the social media giant's practice of keeping its list of dangerous organizations and individuals as a "living document" that changes constantly and isn't archived, saying the policy appears to destroy evidence and "sounds nefarious."

  • May 29, 2024

    6th Circ. Won't Consider Appeal Over Fatal Walmart Shooting

    The Sixth Circuit on Wednesday rejected a challenge to the dismissal of a wrongful death claim against Walmart by the family of a man killed by police, ruling the lower court shouldn't have certified dismissal for immediate review because the same set of facts underlie unresolved claims remaining for trial.

  • May 29, 2024

    Pot Co. Must Face Calif. City's Counterclaims In License Battle

    A California cannabis company and entrepreneur can't escape counterclaims that they failed to pay fees associated with a commercial license to sell in the city of Baldwin Park — the same municipality whose officials they claim helped swindle him out of nearly $1 million — a federal judge ruled Tuesday.

  • May 29, 2024

    Carhartt Heiress Atty Says He Wanted To Pay Back $15M Loan

    A Michigan attorney accused of exploiting his wealthy Carhartt heiress client as trustee testified Wednesday that he intended to repay the roughly $15 million he had loaned himself from her trust, as he took the stand during the second week of a jury trial.

  • May 29, 2024

    Microsoft's Post-Merger Layoffs Cited In I-Told-You-So Appeal

    A private group of gamers is pointing to Microsoft's recent layoffs of 1,900 Activision and XBox employees as evidence of market harms stemming from Microsoft Corp.'s acquisition of Activision Blizzard Inc., as the group seeks to revive a private antitrust suit challenging the merger in the Ninth Circuit.

  • May 29, 2024

    Fed. Circ. Backs Claim Invalidity In Express Mobile Web Patent

    The Federal Circuit has backed a Patent Trial and Appeal Board decision that a single claim of an Express Mobile website generation patent was invalid as obvious based on earlier inventions.

  • May 29, 2024

    Makeup Co. BIPA Suit Trimmed As Arbitration Bid Denied

    An Illinois federal judge on Tuesday said plaintiffs accusing e.l.f. Cosmetics of violating the state's biometric privacy law with its online virtual try-on tool lacked standing to bring two of their claims, while rejecting the company's arguments that the remaining claim should be arbitrated.

  • May 29, 2024

    Handbag Cos. Seek FTC In-House Delay For Fed. Court Row

    Tapestry and Capri are asking the Federal Trade Commission to delay an in-house challenge to the planned $8.5 billion merger combining the parent companies of Coach and Michael Kors, arguing the FTC's separate request for a preliminary injunction in New York federal court should take precedence.

  • May 29, 2024

    P&G Mislabels Tampax Products As 'Pure Cotton,' Suit Says

    Procter & Gamble's Tampax-brand "pure cotton" hygiene products are mislabeled and deceptive to customers since the tampons contain non-natural ingredients like polyester and titanium dioxide, according to a putative false advertising class action filed Tuesday in Illinois federal court. 

  • May 29, 2024

    Barilla Pasta Buyers Win Class Cert. In Italy Labeling Suit

    A California federal judge on Tuesday certified a class action alleging Barilla falsely labels its pasta as being made in Italy after she rejected the company's argument the class is insufficiently defined since it removed the challenged representation in 2022, finding a well-defined class can include those who suffered no injury.

  • May 29, 2024

    6 Questions For FCC Commissioner Anna Gomez

    A year after she was nominated for the Federal Communications Commission's third Democratic seat, Anna Gomez says she's steadily progressing toward goals tied to connectivity, innovation, public safety and media localism in what she calls the "best job I've had in my career."

  • May 29, 2024

    Mercedes-Benz Fights Class Cert In Takata Airbag MDL

    Attorneys for Mercedes-Benz on Wednesday urged the judge overseeing the multidistrict litigation over allegedly defective Takata airbags to deny consumers' bid for class certification, arguing that the evidence is clear the company didn't know of any defects in the airbags before a recall was issued.

  • May 29, 2024

    Pool Co. Can't Avoid, Delay Paying $16M False Ad Verdict

    A North Carolina federal judge has cleared the way for an American swimming pool parts supplier to go after a $16 million judgment from its Chinese rival for false advertising and unfair business practices following a weeklong jury trial earlier this year.

  • May 29, 2024

    Commerce Readies 250% Duty For Cambodian Paper Bags

    The U.S. Department of Commerce determined a nearly 250% final anti-dumping duty rate for certain Cambodia-origin paper shopping bags, saying a company hindered the department's probe into whether the bags were hurting the U.S. through unfairly priced imports.

Expert Analysis

  • Series

    Competing In Dressage Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    My lifelong participation in the sport of dressage — often called ballet on horses — has proven that several skills developed through training and competition are transferable to legal work, especially the ability to harness focus, persistence and versatility when negotiating a deal, says Stephanie Coco at V&E.

  • Opinion

    Nebraska Should Abandon Proposed Digital Ad Tax

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    If passed, Nebraska’s recently proposed Advertising Services Tax Act, which would finance property tax relief by imposing a 7.5% gross revenue tax on advertising services, would cause a politically risky shift of tax burdens from landowners to local businesses and consumers, and would most certainly face litigation, say attorneys at McDermott.

  • What Retailers Should Note In Calif. Web Tracking Suits

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    As retailers face a deluge of class actions alleging the use of conventional web analytic tools violate wiretapping and eavesdropping provisions of the California Invasion of Privacy Act, uncovering the path toward a narrow interpretation of the law will largely depend on how these cases proceed, say Matthew Pearson and Kareem Salem at BakerHostetler.

  • Chancery's Sears Ruling Clarifies Stockholder Duties

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    In a recent landmark decision involving stockholders of Sears Hometown and Outlet Stores, the Delaware Chancery Court addressed for the first time what precise duties a controlling stockholder owes, highlighting that controller interference with board action is not per se invalid and that enhanced scrutiny is a reasonableness test, say Christopher Chuff and Taylor Bartholomew at Troutman Pepper.

  • What's At Stake In High Court NLRB Injunction Case

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    William Baker at Wigdor examines the U.S. Supreme Court's recent decision to hear Starbucks v. McKinney — where it will consider a long-standing circuit split over the standard for evaluating National Labor Relations Board injunction bids — and explains why the justices’ eventual decision, either way, is unlikely to be a significant blow to labor.

  • The Legal Industry Needs A Cybersecurity Paradigm Shift

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    As law firms face ever-increasing risks of cyberattacks and ransomware incidents, the legal industry must implement robust cybersecurity measures and privacy-centric practices to preserve attorney-client privilege, safeguard client trust and uphold the profession’s integrity, says Ryan Paterson at Unplugged.

  • 5 Reasons Associates Shouldn't Take A Job Just For Money

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    As a number of BigLaw firms increase salary scales for early-career attorneys, law students and lateral associates considering new job offers should weigh several key factors that may matter more than financial compensation, say Albert Tawil at Lateral Hub and Ruvin Levavi at Power Forward.

  • Expediting Psychedelics Approvals In The US And Canada

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    Accelerated regulatory pathways for psychedelics in the U.S. and Canada play a pivotal role in the progression of drugs, devices and novel therapies toward commercialization, say Kimberly Chew at Husch Blackwell, and Ana Dukic and Sabrina Ramkellawan at AxialBridge.

  • Directors And Officers Face Unique AI-Related Risks

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    As privacy, intellectual property and discrimination lawsuits focusing on artificial intelligence increase, corporate directors and officers must stay aware of associated risks, including those related to compliance, litigation and cybersecurity, says Jonathan Meer at Wilson Elser.

  • Series

    Playing Competitive Tennis Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    My experience playing competitive tennis has highlighted why prioritizing exercise and stress relief, maintaining perspective under pressure, and supporting colleagues in pursuit of a common goal are all key aspects of championing a successful legal career, says Madhumita Datta at Lowenstein Sandler.

  • New Strain Of Web Tracking Suits Pose Risks For Retailers

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    Amid an ongoing surge of California state and federal lawsuits that are using novel theories to allege companies used certain recording technologies to illegally track website users, retailers should take steps to develop a potential argument that customers consented to any alleged uses of these devices, say attorneys at Benesch.

  • Series

    The Pop Culture Docket: Judge Djerassi On Super Bowl 52

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    Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas Judge Ramy Djerassi discusses how Super Bowl 52, in which the Philadelphia Eagles prevailed over the New England Patriots, provides an apt metaphor for alternative dispute resolution processes in commercial business cases.

  • Ex-OpenSea Staffer Case May Clarify When Info Is Property

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    In considering the appeal of a former OpenSea manager’s wire fraud conviction in U.S. v. Chastain, the Second Circuit may soon provide guidance about whether economic information is traditional property in certain insider trading prosecutions — a theory of fraud that the U.S. Supreme Court has repeatedly narrowed, say attorneys at Debevoise.

  • Unraveling The Bundled Benefits Of Retail Memberships

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    The recent prevalence of paid retail memberships and the associated findings of a consumer survey suggest that assessing consumer preferences and welfare may be important when considering resolution mechanisms in antitrust contexts, say Rosa M. Abrantes-Metz at Berkeley Research Group, Mame Maloney at The Brattle Group and Jeff Brazell at the University of Utah.

  • Opinion

    Stakeholder Amici Should Be Heard In Russian Trade Case

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    Although the U.S. Court of International Trade recently rejected U.S. Steel's amicus brief in NLMK Pennsylvania v. U.S., other industry stakeholders should seek to appear — and the court should allow it because additional perspectives will lead to a more informed ruling, say attorneys Jeffrey Shapiro and Michael Andrews.

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