Retail & E-Commerce

May 20, 2024
Transparency Act Violates Constitution, Groups Tell 11th Circ.

The Corporate Transparency Act's reporting requirements violate the Fifth Amendment's protection against self-incrimination and other constitutional provisions, libertarian think tank Cato Institute and others said Monday in urging the Eleventh Circuit to uphold an Alabama district court's ruling against the law.
May 20, 2024
FTC Says Albertsons Execs Deleted Texts In Kroger Case

Kroger and the Federal Trade Commission are at each other's throats over discovery in the agency's in-house challenge to the grocery giant's $25 billion merger with Albertsons and in district court, with the grocers accusing the agency of "running out the clock" and the FTC accusing the grocers of deleting text messages.
May 20, 2024
Texas' Naive Witness 'Unacceptable' In Google Ad Tech Suit

A judge overseeing a Texas-led lawsuit accusing Google of anti-competitive conduct in the display advertising market has ordered the attorneys general bringing the litigation to provide an adequate witness who can speak to certain facts about the investigation, calling their failure to do so "puzzling and unacceptable."
May 20, 2024
Rite Aid Settles Trademark Suit Over New Logo

Rite Aid has reached an agreement with Brand Design Co. to end a lawsuit claiming that the drugstore chain misused the design firm's font for a new logo, the parties have told a Pennsylvania federal court.
May 20, 2024
Photographer, Lions Clash Over Sanders Statue Suit Venue

A professional photographer and the NFL's Detroit Lions are scuffling over whether New York federal court is the proper venue to handle the photographer's lawsuit accusing the team of unlawfully using his copyrighted photo to create a statue of legendary running back Barry Sanders.
May 20, 2024
Ga. Court Sends Fatal Restaurant Shooting Suit To Trial

The Georgia Court of Appeals on Monday said a lawsuit against an Atlanta-area restaurant and its security company over a 2016 shooting on the premises should proceed to trial.
May 20, 2024
7-Eleven Says Insurer Must Cover Wrongful Death Suit

The insurer of a Houston 7-Eleven lessee facing negligence claims after one person was fatally shot and another was injured on its property must also cover 7-Eleven corporate in the litigation, the convenience store giant said, though conceding the lessee store's policy didn't specifically include 7-Eleven as an additional insured.
May 20, 2024
Senate Report Ties Automakers To Uyghur Forced Labor

BMW, Jaguar Land Rover and Volkswagen imported cars and their parts that were manufactured by a Chinese company sanctioned for using forced labor, according to a congressional report released Monday raising concerns about compliance with recent measures to crack down on labor violations.
May 20, 2024
Catching Up With Delaware's Chancery Court

Delaware was full of drama last week, as proposed changes to the state's corporate law statutes raised eyebrows and a professor's friend-of-the-court brief sparked a very unfriendly public exchange. Delaware's court of equity banged the gavel on pipeline and social media disputes, and shareholders filed new suits alleging insider trading, vote bungling, unfair stock buybacks and merger shenanigans. In case you missed any of it, here's the recap of all the top news last week from Delaware's Chancery Court.
May 20, 2024
Justices Reject Seirus Challenge To Design Patent Test

The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday refused to review a Federal Circuit ruling that revived Columbia Sportswear's design patent suit against Seirus Innovative Accessories Inc., which Seirus said created an "illogical, unworkable test" for design patent cases.
May 17, 2024
Apple OK'd New App Fees Despite Antitrust Ruling

An Apple Inc. executive conceded during a high-stakes antitrust hearing Friday over Apple's compliance with a court-ordered ban on App Store anti-steering rules that executives decided to implement a new 27% fee on out-of-app transactions despite knowing a jury had recently found that similar Google fees violated antitrust laws.
May 17, 2024
Bong Co. Can't Get Early Win In TM Suit Over No-Show Opponent

The maker of Stündenglass-branded glass infusers was denied a win over a retailer that didn't bother to put up a defense against its trademark infringement suit, after a California federal judge accepted a magistrate's report that the litigious manufacturer still couldn't back up its claims.
May 17, 2024
Judge Rails At Attys' Failure To Prep For Evasion Case Queries

A U.S. Court of International Trade judge lambasted the government's counsel during oral arguments Friday in a Cambodian pipe company's suit over a tariff evasion probe for failing to answer her questions, even with time to prepare.
May 17, 2024
T-Mobile Must Face Sprint Merger Suit Before Appealing

The Seventh Circuit summarily rejected T-Mobile's move for interlocutory appeal in a proposed consumer class action targeting the company's 2020 merger with Sprint, allowing the case to advance to discovery after the district court denied T-Mobile's motion to dismiss in the fall.
May 17, 2024
Kohl's Directors' Aversion To Sale Was Self-Serving, Suit Says

A Kohl's shareholder has hit the retailer's brass with a derivative suit alleging they covered up the results of a disastrous shift in business strategy and takeover offers, all in a bid to protect their own positions.
May 17, 2024
Mich. $3.4M Sales Tax Bill Is Wrong, Sneaker Site Tells Court

The Michigan Treasury Department incorrectly calculated a sneaker resale site's sales tax liability from 2017 through 2019, as the site is a marketplace facilitator required to collect tax beginning in 2020, the site told the state Court of Claims.
May 17, 2024
Furniture Co. Says Insurer Wrongly Denied Hacking Coverage

A Pittsburgh furniture company accused its insurer of bad faith and breach of contract for failing to cover more than $530,000 in losses due to monthslong hacking that began in 2021.
May 17, 2024
Peloton Says Investors Are 'Manufacturing' Bike Recall Suit

Fitness equipment company Peloton urged a New York federal judge on Friday to toss a suit alleging it overstated the safety of its bikes before the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission recalled roughly 2.2 million Peloton products over a bike seat defect, saying the investors are trying to "manufacture" a case from a voluntary recall.
May 17, 2024
Zero Duty Doesn't Address Exporter's Benefits, Calif. Biz Says

A juice wholesaler's attorney argued Friday that the U.S. Department of Commerce ignored the relationship between a Brazilian lemon juice exporter and its supplier, while calling for higher duties to account for benefits the Brazilian company may have received.
May 17, 2024
Feds Seek 10 Years In First Product Safety Conviction

The government is asking for a pair of 10-year prison sentences for two Gree USA Inc. executives convicted of failing to report defective humidifiers, after the two were found guilty of conspiracy to defraud the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission.
May 17, 2024
'Confusing' Evidence Leads To New Patent Trial For Shopify

A Delaware federal judge Friday granted in part Shopify Inc.'s bid for a new trial in an infringement suit over a series of patents for website generation owned by Express Mobile Inc. after Express won a $40 million jury verdict in 2022.
May 17, 2024
Chicago Wants Climate Deception Claims Back In State Court

The city of Chicago says it should be in state court hashing out climate change deception claims against several of the nation's largest oil producers because the companies lodged "objectively baseless" arguments to remove its case to federal court.
May 17, 2024
Air Gun Co. Manager Accused Of Fraud By Receiver

The court-appointed overseer of a crumbling North Carolina air gun company has alleged that an owner was fraudulent and self-dealing with the businesses' money, saying a forensic accounting showed money flowing between accounts.
May 17, 2024
Koch-Tied Group Says Transparency Law Offends Federalism

The Corporate Transparency Act is unconstitutional because it does not regulate interstate commerce yet mandates that state-registered entities disclose personal information, a conservative group affiliated with the billionaire Koch brothers told the Eleventh Circuit on Friday.
May 17, 2024
Dolce & Gabbana Sued Over 'Worthless' Digital Outfit NFTs

Luxury fashion brand Dolce & Gabbana has been hit with a shareholder class action in New York federal court, alleging it sold consumers "essentially worthless" non-fungible tokens that it misrepresented as high-value and abandoned the project while retaining over $25 million that was used to fund it.

Expert Analysis

Charting The Course For Digital Assets In 2024

Although 2023 was a tough year for the digital asset industry, upcoming court decisions, legislation and regulatory action will bring clarity, allowing the industry to expand and evolve, and the government will decide what innovation it will allow without challenge, says Joshua Smeltzer at Gray Reed.
Law Firm Strategies For Successfully Navigating 2024 Trends

Though law firms face the dual challenge of external and internal pressures as they enter 2024, firms willing to pivot will be able to stand out by adapting to stakeholder needs and reimagining their infrastructure, says Shireen Hilal at Maior Consultants.
The Most-Read Legal Industry Law360 Guest Articles Of 2023

A range of legal industry topics drew readers' attention in Law360's Expert Analysis section this year, from associate retention strategies to ethical billing practices.
5 Most Notable Class Action Standing Cases Of 2023

Key appellate class action decisions this past year continued the trend of a more demanding approach to the threshold issue of standing during each phase of litigation, say attorneys at MoFo.
Trends Shaping The 2024 Consumer Packaged Goods Industry

The better-for-you segment within the consumer packaged goods industry is poised for a significant evolution in 2024, and industry players must remain agile and adaptive through M&A activities, legal considerations, sustainability initiatives and changing technology, says Christopher Cain at Foley & Lardner.
Attorneys' Busiest Times Can Be Business Opportunities

Attorneys who resolve to grow their revenue and client base in 2024 should be careful not to abandon their goals when they get too busy with client work, because these periods of zero bandwidth can actually be a catalyst for future growth, says Amy Drysdale at Alchemy Consulting.
A Difficult Year For CRE, But Future May Be Brighter

2023 was a challenging year for the commercial real estate industry, marked by significant uncertainty, but market pressure and signs of rising interest rates provide some reasons to be cautiously optimistic for the year ahead as pandemic headwinds and gridlock fade away, say attorneys at Ropes & Gray.
In The World Of Legal Ethics, 10 Trends To Note From 2023

Lucian Pera at Adams and Reese and Trisha Rich at Holland & Knight identify the top legal ethics trends from 2023 — including issues related to hot documents, artificial intelligence and cybersecurity — that lawyers should be aware of to put their best foot forward.
Opinion

Why Challenges To FTC Authority Are Needed

In spite of skepticism from courts, the Federal Trade Commission continues to advance novel legal theories — and Meta's recent federal suit against the agency over its alleged "structurally unconstitutional" administrative proceedings is arguably an expression of backlash to regulatory overreach, says Daniel Gilman at the International Center for Law & Economics.
Analyzing 1 Year Of Comments On FTC's Green Guides

A review of over 7,000 comments submitted in the year since the Federal Trade Commission requested feedback on its Green Guides reveals widespread concern over how the existing guidelines leave room for interpretation, putting businesses in a challenging position when marketing products, say Mark Levy and Emma Lombard at Eckert Seamans.
The Key Laws Retailers Should Pay Attention To In 2024

2024 promises to be another transformative year for retailers as they navigate the evolving regulatory landscape, particularly surrounding data privacy and sustainability laws, meaning companies should make it a practice to keep track of new legislation and invest in compliance efforts early on, say attorneys at Benesch.
Fed's New Swipe At Debit Fees Stirs Up Dilemma For Banks

The Federal Reserve's proposal to reduce the cap on debit card interchange fees charged or received by card issuers and payment networks comes as other bank account fees are taking regulatory hits, which could all culminate in an overall decline in access to banking products and services, says Kristen Larson at Ballard Spahr.
How Attorneys Can Be More Efficient This Holiday Season

Attorneys should consider a few key tips to speed up their work during the holidays so they can join the festivities — from streamlining the document review process to creating similar folder structures, says Bennett Rawicki at Hilgers Graben.
A Former Bankruptcy Judge Talks 2023 High Court Rulings

In 2023, the U.S. Supreme Court issued four bankruptcy law opinions — an extraordinary number — and a close look at these cases signals that changes to the U.S. Bankruptcy Code will have to come from Congress, not the courts, says Phillip Shefferly at the University of Michigan Law School.
Series

Children's Book Writing Makes Me A Better Lawyer

Becoming a children's book author has opened doors to incredible new experiences of which I barely dared to dream, but the process has also changed my life by serving as a reminder that strong writing, networking and public speaking skills are hugely beneficial to a legal career, says Shaunna Bailey at Sheppard Mullin.