Retail & E-Commerce

  • December 12, 2024

    Koch Foods Demands $178K For 'Burdensome' Subpoena

    Koch Foods has become the latest nonparty to an antitrust fight between Tyson Foods and a poultry rendering company to try to recover a six-figure legal bill from the latter company, after Koch said it was forced to comply with a "broad and ambiguous subpoena" for its communications with Tyson.

  • December 12, 2024

    NY Judge Bars Pot Regulator From Processing Retail Apps

    A New York state judge Thursday ordered cannabis regulators to stop processing applications submitted by would-be marijuana sellers who did not secure a location for their proposed pot shop before November of last year, leaving hundreds of prospective retailers in limbo.

  • December 12, 2024

    Amazon Can't Nix Class, Collective Claims In Pay Bias Suit

    A Washington federal judge on Thursday said Amazon cannot throw out proposed class and collective claims that it systematically paid women less than their male counterparts, saying the case is not "so hopeless" that certification is impossible down the road.

  • December 12, 2024

    Bausch And Lomb Says Potential Sale In The Works

    Bausch and Lomb Corp. on Thursday confirmed reports that it is exploring a potential sale, acting in response to a request from the Canadian Investment Regulatory Organization.

  • December 12, 2024

    Cannabis Shops Ask DC Judge To Halt Store Shutdowns

    A coalition of Washington, D.C.-based recreational marijuana shops is asking a D.C. federal judge to put a stop to district regulators' enforcement actions against their stores, saying the businesses face "imminent destruction" absent an injunction.

  • December 12, 2024

    Minnesota Cannabis Authority Nixes Social Equity Lottery

    Minnesota's cannabis regulators are scrapping the special license lottery for social equity applicants, opting to go with a general applicant lottery since a state court put a pause on their original plans.

  • December 12, 2024

    Farmers Market Wraps Up Ex-Worker's Harassment Suit

    An Atlanta-area Sprouts Farmers Market has struck a deal with an ex-employee who said she was fired for calling out a co-worker's offensive comments about her sexuality, according to a filing in Georgia federal court.

  • December 12, 2024

    FTC Dusts Off Price Bias Law In Booze Distributor Suit

    The Federal Trade Commission sued Southern Glazer's Wine and Spirits LLC in California federal court on Thursday, dusting off a long-dormant price discrimination law with allegations that the country's largest alcohol distributor offered dramatic and unjustified discounts to large retailers that left smaller stores in the lurch.

  • December 11, 2024

    Flo Rida's Trial Win Against Celsius Largely Upheld On Appeal

    A Florida state appellate court Wednesday largely affirmed rapper Flo Rida's $83.6 million trial win against Celsius Holdings Inc., reversing only on the beverage company's contention that the trial court should have measured stock valuation at an alleged breach of contract date instead of at the time of trial.

  • December 11, 2024

    Grocery Store Rulings Back Enforcers' Merger Approach

    Federal and state enforcers scored key victories Tuesday with a pair of court rulings blocking the planned $24.6 billion merger between Kroger and Albertsons that largely adopted their allegations about the deal and rejected a proposal to unload nearly 600 stores to save it.

  • December 11, 2024

    Wyoming Defends Hemp Law At 10th Circ.

    Wyoming's hemp law, which imposes new restrictions on hemp-derived THC and bans products with more than 0.3% THC, should continue uninterrupted, the state told the Tenth Circuit, saying the statute is neither unconstitutional nor preempted by federal law.

  • December 11, 2024

    Cross-Border Criminal Antitrust Trial Will Stay In Houston

    A case against a group of defendants accused of using violence to monopolize the cross-border sale of used cars from the U.S. into Central America must stay in Houston, a federal judge ruled this week.

  • December 11, 2024

    WordPress Parent Must Restore WP Engine's Access

    A California federal judge issued a preliminary injunction on Tuesday restoring WP Engine's access to WordPress while the web hosting company pursues its antitrust allegations against WordPress parent Automattic and CEO Matthew Mullenweg, claiming it was blocked from the site after refusing to pay millions of dollars to Automattic.

  • December 11, 2024

    Insurer Seeks $900K For Conn. Dehumidifier Fire Damages

    An insurer said it is entitled to recover over $900,000 from a dehumidifier manufacturer and its subsidiaries for costs the carrier incurred in covering a policyholder's house fire, telling a Connecticut federal court that the manufacturer's product was defective and unreasonably dangerous.

  • December 11, 2024

    CORRECTED: Jury Finds Poultry Co. Owes $10.5M For Bony Chicken

    Pilgrim's Pride owes Washington-based grocery vendor Innovative Solutions Inc. $10.5 million for consumer protection and negligence claims, a federal jury said Wednesday, capping off a weeklong trial in which Innovative accused the poultry producer of selling it bony chicken that ultimately ruined a chicken burger deal with Trader Joe's. Correction: An earlier version of the story misstated the verdict amount. The error has been corrected.

  • December 11, 2024

    Calif. Panel Reverses Cost Award After Auto Shop Wage Trial

    A California appeals panel flipped a lower court's decision awarding about $54,000 in post-offer costs to an auto body shop after winning a former employee's wage and hour suit, saying that two sections of the California Labor Code preclude such awards.

  • December 11, 2024

    Albertsons Sues Kroger In Chancery After Blocked Megadeal

    Grocery giant Albertsons, in a Wednesday lawsuit in the Delaware Court of Chancery, said Kroger did not put forth its "best efforts" into getting their planned $24.6 billion megamerger cleared while also announcing official plans to nix the deal, moves that came just one day after two judges blocked the proposed acquisition.

  • December 10, 2024

    Robinhood Seeks Arb. For Remaining Meme Stock MDL Suits

    Stock trading platform Robinhood urged a Florida federal court to send to arbitration the seven remaining individual suits brought against it as part of a multidistrict litigation over the platform's decision to freeze trading in certain so-called meme stocks amid a social-media fueled run on shares of those issuers.

  • December 10, 2024

    Judge Won't Cull EpiPen Antitrust Action Against Mylan

    Mylan Pharmaceuticals didn't get the early exit it sought from litigation accusing it of working with Pfizer to inflate the price of the latter's popular auto-injecting emergency allergy medication EpiPen, as a Kansas federal judge has ruled the case must move on to discovery.

  • December 10, 2024

    Walgreens Sued For Docs After $107M FCA Deal With DOJ

    Walgreens shareholders have sued the company in Delaware seeking to inspect its books and records over its alleged long-running practice of billing government healthcare programs for prescriptions that were not dispensed, arguing Monday "there's more than a credible basis to infer evidence" of wrongdoing by the retailer.

  • December 10, 2024

    Trader Joe's Seller Fumbled Burger Deal, Poultry Co. Says

    Pilgrim's Pride told a federal jury Tuesday it was not ultimately responsible when a grocery supplier used its bony chicken shipments to make burgers, arguing the vendor failed to inspect the meat for excessive bones, leading to eventual recalls and the end of its Trader Joe's deal.

  • December 10, 2024

    9th Circ. Upholds $850K Penalty In EPA Fine Suit

    The Ninth Circuit on Tuesday upheld a $850,000 penalty against Multistar Industries Inc. for Clean Water Act violations related to chemical storage, saying it agrees with the Environmental Protection Agency's view that the company was not exempt from the rules for storing hazardous materials.

  • December 10, 2024

    5th Circ. Asks ATF Where To 'Draw The Line' In Trigger Ban

    A Fifth Circuit panel has pressed the government on how so-called "forced reset triggers" are different from bump stocks, asking where it was supposed to draw the line to determine whether the triggers turn semiautomatic firearms into federally banned machine guns.

  • December 10, 2024

    Ohio Justices Undo Paint-Maker's Lead Paint Coverage Win

    Insurers for Sherwin-Williams Co. don't have to cover the paint-maker's portion of a $305 million settlement to abate lead paint in California homes, the Ohio Supreme Court ruled Tuesday, finding the payment does not qualify as damages under its commercial general liability policies.

  • December 10, 2024

    Google Takes Aim At Ad Tech Antitrust Claims In States' Suit

    Google has blasted the lawsuit accusing it of illegally manipulating the advertising market, saying that Texas and the roughly dozen other states behind the litigation are "playing a shell game" in which they serially amend their complaints to "avoid the weaknesses of their antitrust claims."

Expert Analysis

  • Fed. Circ. Ruling May Signal Software Patent Landscape Shift

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    The Federal Circuit's recent ruling in Broadband iTV, despite similarities to past decisions, chose to rely on prior cases finding patent-ineligible claims directed to receiving and displaying information, which may undermine one of the few areas of perceived predictability in the patent eligibility landscape, say attorneys at King & Wood.

  • FDIC Guidance Puts Next-Gen ATMs In Regulatory Spotlight

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    The boring existence of ATMs is changing thanks to the emergence of new-age interactive teller machines, prompting the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. to sound off in a potentially influential August letter to branches on which services might need regulatory approval, says Thomas Walker at Jones Walker.

  • Series

    Beekeeping Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    The practice of patent law and beekeeping are not typically associated, but taking care of honeybees has enriched my legal practice by highlighting the importance of hands-on experience, continuous learning, mentorship and more, says David Longo at Oblon McClelland.

  • Amazon Holiday Pay Case Underscores Overtime Challenges

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    The recent Hamilton v. Amazon.com Services LLC decision in the Colorado Supreme Court underscores why employers must always consult applicable state law and regulations — in addition to federal law — when determining how to properly pay employees who work more than 40 hours in a workweek, says James Looby at Vedder Price.

  • Understanding New ACH Network Anti-Fraud Rules

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    Many of the National Automated Clearing House Association’s recent amendments to ACH network risk management rules went into effect this month, so financial institutions and corporations must review and update their internal policies as needed, says Aisha Hall at Taft.

  • Opinion

    It's Time To Sound The Alarm About Lost Labor Rights

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    In the Fifth Circuit, recent rulings from judges appointed by former President Donald Trump have dismantled workers’ core labor rights, a troubling trend that we cannot risk extending under another Trump administration, say Sharon Block and Raj Nayak at the Center for Labor and a Just Economy.

  • Election Unlikely To Overhaul Antitrust Enforcers' Labor Focus

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    Although the outcome of the presidential election may alter the course of antitrust enforcement in certain areas of the economy, scrutiny of labor markets by the Federal Trade Commission and the U.S. Department of Justice is likely to remain largely unaffected — with one notable exception, say Jared Nagley and Joy Siu at Sheppard Mullin.

  • Opinion

    Legal Institutions Must Warn Against Phony Election Suits

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    With two weeks until the election, bar associations and courts have an urgent responsibility to warn lawyers about the consequences of filing unsubstantiated lawsuits claiming election fraud, says Elise Bean at the Carl Levin Center for Oversight and Democracy.

  • How Cos. Can Build A Strong In-House Pro Bono Program

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    During this year’s pro bono celebration week, companies should consider some key pointers to grow and maintain a vibrant in-house program for attorneys to provide free legal services for the public good, says Mary Benton at Alston & Bird.

  • Series

    Home Canning Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    Making my own pickles and jams requires seeing a process through from start to finish, as does representing clients from the start of a dispute at the Patent Trial and Appeal Board through any appeals to the Federal Circuit, says attorney Kevin McNish.

  • Navigating FEMA Grant Program For Slope Fixes After Storms

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    In the aftermath of Hurricanes Helene and Milton, it is critical for governments, businesses and individuals to understand the legal requirements of the Federal Emergency Management Agency's grant programs to obtain funding for crucial repairs — including restoration of damaged infrastructure caused by landslides and slope failures, says Charles Schexnaildre at Baker Donelson.

  • Use The Right Kind Of Feedback To Help Gen Z Attorneys

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    Generation Z associates bring unique perspectives and expectations to the workplace, so it’s imperative that supervising attorneys adapt their feedback approach in order to help young lawyers learn and grow — which is good for law firms, too, says Rachael Bosch at Fringe Professional Development.

  • Opinion

    Congress Can And Must Enact A Supreme Court Ethics Code

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    As public confidence in the U.S. Supreme Court dips to historic lows following reports raising conflict of interest concerns, Congress must exercise its constitutional power to enact a mandatory and enforceable code of ethics for the high court, says Muhammad Faridi, president of the New York City Bar Association.

  • What To Make Of Dueling Corporate Transparency Act Rulings

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    Although challenges to the Corporate Transparency Act abound — as highlighted by recent federal court decisions from Alabama and Oregon taking opposite positions on its constitutionality — the act is still law, so companies should comply with their filing requirements or face the potential consequences, say attorneys at Lowenstein Sandler.

  • Series

    The Pop Culture Docket: Justice Lebovits On Gilbert And Sullivan

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    Characters in the 19th century comic operas of Gilbert and Sullivan break the rules of good lawyering by shamelessly throwing responsible critical thought to the wind, providing hilarious lessons for lawyers and judges on how to avoid a surfeit of traps and tribulations, say acting New York Supreme Court Justice Gerald Lebovits and law student Tara Scown.

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