Retail & E-Commerce

  • July 15, 2024

    US Co. Says Feds Ignored Sales Issues To Lift Chemical Duty

    A chemical manufacturer that convinced the U.S. Department of Commerce to levy tariffs on an Austrian corrosion-inhibiting pigment in 2019 has sued the department for its recent decision to lift the tariffs, claiming Commerce overlooked an importer's influence over its U.S. customers.

  • July 12, 2024

    Law360 Names 2024's Top Attorneys Under 40

    Law360 is pleased to announce the Rising Stars of 2024, our list of 158 attorneys under 40 whose legal accomplishments belie their age.

  • July 12, 2024

    2nd Circ. Revives 'Whole Wheat Flour' Cracker Label Suit

    Advertising which emphasized "organic whole wheat flour" in a box of crackers when white flour was the primary ingredient was misleading and "arguably false," according to the Second Circuit, which revived a lawsuit accusing Back to Nature Foods Co. of tricking its customers.

  • July 12, 2024

    Valve Says Too Much Game Publisher Variety For Class Cert.

    Online gaming giant Valve is fighting certification of a class of some 32,000 gaming publishers that distributed their titles through the company's Steam platform, arguing those publishers have nothing in common to assert any commonality in the alleged creation of a pricing floor that helped sustain Valve's 30% commissions.

  • July 12, 2024

    Staffing Agency Accused Of Misclassifying Workers

    A staffing agency misclassified customer service agents as independent contractors and failed to pay them for all the hours they worked, according to a proposed class and collective action filed in Colorado federal court.

  • July 12, 2024

    Republican Presses Tai For Info On E-Commerce Shift

    Rep. James Comer, R-Ky., pressed the Biden administration's top trade official for more information on why the president withdrew from digital trade talks at the World Trade Organization, threatening "compulsory action" if she failed to provide meaningful answers.

  • July 12, 2024

    T-Mobile Wins Time To Defend Arb. Award In 'SIM Swap' Suit

    T-Mobile USA has won more time to defend an arbitration award it won after a customer claimed that lax security measures caused him to lose nearly $240,000 in cryptocurrency, according to a Florida federal court order.

  • July 12, 2024

    Wayfair Says Contractor On 1st Megastore Stiffed Vendors

    Online retailer Wayfair LLC says the company it hired to oversee the build-out of its first "large-format" brick and mortar location failed to pay multiple subcontractors on the project, forcing Wayfair to pay the subcontractors directly to ensure that the store opened on time, according to a complaint filed Friday.

  • July 12, 2024

    Midyear Report: Taking Stock Of Sports Betting Enforcement

    The first six months of 2024 saw no shortage of action in the enforcement of sports betting rules, highlighted by a bombshell fraud case ensnaring baseball's biggest star and a messy betting scandal that saw a fringe NBA rotation player banned from the game for life.

  • July 12, 2024

    Contracting Co. Sues Home Depot Over Tool Rental Charges

    A Philadelphia-based contracting company has hit Home Depot USA Inc. with a proposed class action in Georgia, claiming the home improvement chain has systematically overcharged the customers of its tool rental program.

  • July 12, 2024

    Conn. Landlord Loses COVID-Era Lease Fight With Eatery

    A Connecticut landlord did not tender an "unequivocal ultimatum" booting an eatery from a parcel of property, an appellate panel ruled Friday, finding that since the landlord vacillated between kicking the tenant off its Wallingford land and accepting payments, a 2020 eviction notice had no effect.

  • July 12, 2024

    Judge OKs Another Penalty Duty Over Chinese Loan Program

    The U.S. Department of Commerce justifiably penalized a Chinese aluminum importer over Beijing's refusal to disclose information on an export loan program, the U.S. Court of International Trade said, finding the importer hadn't filled the gap in the record.

  • July 12, 2024

    Dick's, Customer Want Golf Net Suit Stayed For Mediation

    Dick's Sporting Goods Inc. and a man who claims he suffered permanent eye damage because of a defective golf practice net bought from the company are asking a Georgia federal judge to keep his litigation on hold while they pursue mediation.

  • July 12, 2024

    Taxation With Representation: Ropes & Gray, Cravath, Latham

    In this Week's Taxation with Representation, Paramount Global merges with Skydance Media, Devon Energy acquires Grayson Mill Energy's Williston Basin oil and gas business, Ryan acquires Altus Group Ltd.'s property tax business, and Bain Capital buys Envestnet Inc.

  • July 12, 2024

    UK Litigation Roundup: Here's What You Missed In London

    This past week in London has seen the owner of the Lambretta scooter brand Innocenti SA embroiled in a trademark dispute with a property developer, a clash between two art dealers over a collection of tapestries, Telecom Italia pursue a debt claim against a competing telecommunications company, and performing arts trade union Equity hit a casting directory for charging unfair subscription fees on actors. Here, Law360 looks at these and other new claims in the U.K.

  • July 11, 2024

    Kroger Asks To Delay At Least Part Of FTC Challenge

    Kroger and Albertsons are asking an administrative law judge from the Federal Trade Commission to pause the evidentiary portion of the agency's in-house case against the supermarket giants' merger, saying the companies are facing too many overlapping cases in different venues to adequately prepare and present their case.

  • July 11, 2024

    Apple Ducks iPhone Web App Antitrust Suit, For Now

    Consumers will have to rejigger their proposed antitrust class action alleging Apple anticompetitively prevents iPhones from running web-based apps that don't need to be downloaded, after a California federal judge said Thursday that they've failed to show a conspiracy or connect the dots from company rules to customer injury.

  • July 11, 2024

    Western Union Owes $8M For Soured Deal, Vendor Says

    A Taiwan-based manufacturer of point-of-sale devices launched a lawsuit against Western Union in Colorado federal court, accusing it of ordering about 25,000 POS terminals worth roughly $8 million and then backing out of the transaction and refusing to pay after the vendor had already started making the devices.

  • July 11, 2024

    SF Fed Sues Troubled PPP Lender, Founder For Nearly $67M

    The San Francisco arm of the Federal Reserve has sued one of the largest Paycheck Protection Program lenders in Puerto Rico federal court seeking to recover nearly $67 million, alleging the lender has defaulted on the terms of roughly $4.3 billion in credit it advanced for PPP loans.

  • July 11, 2024

    Commerce Aims To Codify Duty Probe Practices For NMEs

    The U.S. Department of Commerce proposed regulations on Thursday to formalize practices developed since the 1990s to assess duties on imports from nonmarket economies, including denying lower tariff rates to businesses determined to be heavily controlled by their governments.

  • July 11, 2024

    Pfizer's $50M EpiPen Deal Gets Final OK In Antitrust Suit

    Pfizer is officially out of a lawsuit accusing it of working with Mylan Pharmaceuticals to inflate the price of the popular auto-injecting emergency allergy medication EpiPen after a Kansas federal judge gave the $50 million settlement his final seal of approval.

  • July 11, 2024

    Attys Say Milberg Must Pay For Fraud In Visa, Mastercard MDL

    Class counsel representing plaintiffs in long-running multidistrict litigation accusing Visa and Mastercard of charging improper merchant fees have called for sanctions against Milberg Coleman Bryson Phillips Grossman LLC, laying out arguments for a fee reimbursement after the firm admitted to mistakenly registering fraudulent clients.

  • July 11, 2024

    Dollar General Pays $12M Over DOL's Safety Violation Claims

    Discount retail chain Dollar General will pay $12 million to resolve alleged workplace safety violations at its stores nationwide, including obstructed emergency exits and unsafe storage, and will implement abatement measures like expanding storage capacity and reducing overstock, the U.S. Department of Labor announced Wednesday.

  • July 11, 2024

    Legal Foundation Urges Justices To Limit RICO's Civil Scope

    The Washington Legal Foundation on Thursday urged the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn a Second Circuit decision allowing a trucker to sue three CBD companies under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, saying the circuit court ignored RICO's structure and purpose.

  • July 11, 2024

    Accounting Firm Contests Blame For Client's $2M Tax Bill

    An accounting firm maintains it had no duty to inform an online flower bulb retailer about a major change in tax law stemming from the U.S. Supreme Court's 2018 Wayfair decision, telling the North Carolina Business Court that advising on such topics wasn't within the scope of its duties.

Expert Analysis

  • 4 Ways To Refresh Your Law Firm's Marketing Strategy

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    With many BigLaw firms relying on an increasingly obsolete marketing approach that prioritizes stiff professionalism over authentic connection, adopting a few key communications strategies to better connect with today's clients and prospects can make all the difference, say Eric Pacifici and Kevin Henderson at SMB Law.

  • Cos. Must Prepare For Calif. Legislation That Would Ban PFAS

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    Pending California legislation that would ban the sale or distribution of new products containing intentionally added per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances could affect thousands of businesses — and given the bill's expected passage, and its draconian enforcement regime, companies must act now to prepare for it, say attorneys at Alston & Bird.

  • Opinion

    SC's Courts Have It Wrong On Amazon Marketplace Sales Tax

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    The South Carolina Supreme Court should step in and correct the misguided change in tax law effectuated by lower court rulings that found Amazon owes state sales tax for marketplace sales made prior to the U.S. Supreme Court’s Wayfair v. South Dakota decision in 2018, says Hayes Holderness at the University of Richmond.

  • What Have We Learned In The Year Since Warhol?

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    In the almost year since the U.S. Supreme Court decided Andy Warhol Foundation v. Goldsmith, which was widely seen as potentially chilling to creative endeavors, seven subsequent decisions — while illuminating to some extent — do not indicate any trend toward a radical departure from prior precedents in fair use cases, says ​​​​​​​Jose Sariego at Bilzin Sumberg.

  • Highlights From The 2024 ABA Antitrust Spring Meeting

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    U.S. merger enforcement and cartels figured heavily in this year's American Bar Association spring antitrust meeting, where one key takeaway included news that the Federal Trade Commission's anticipated changes to the Hart-Scott-Rodino form may be less dramatic than many originally feared, say attorneys at Freshfields.

  • Patent Lessons From 8 Federal Circuit Reversals In March

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    A number of Federal Circuit patent decisions last month reversed or vacated underlying rulings, providing guidance regarding the definiteness of a claim that include multiple limitations of different scopes, the importance of adequate jury instruction, the proper scope of the precedent, and more, say Denise De Mory and Li Guo at Bunsow De Mory.

  • Series

    Whitewater Kayaking Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    Whether it's seeing clients and their issues from a new perspective, or staying nimble in a moment of intense challenge, the lessons learned from whitewater kayaking transcend the rapids of a river and prepare attorneys for the courtroom and beyond, says Matthew Kent at Alston & Bird.

  • New Wash. Laws Employers Should Pay Attention To

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    The Washington Legislature ended its session last month after passing substantial laws that should prompt employers to spring into action — including a broadened equal pay law to cover classes beyond gender, narrowed sick leave payment requirements for construction workers and protections for grocery workers after a merger, say Hannah Ard and Alayna Piwonski at Lane Powell.

  • 3 Lessons From Family Dollar's Record $41.7M Guilty Plea

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    Family Dollar's recent plea deal in connection with a rodent infestation at one of its distribution facilities — resulting in the largest ever monetary criminal penalty in a food safety case — offers key takeaways for those practicing in the interconnected fields of compliance, internal investigations and white collar defense, says Jonathan Porter at Husch Blackwell.

  • This Earth Day, Consider How Your Firm Can Go Greener

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    As Earth Day approaches, law firms and attorneys should consider adopting more sustainable practices to reduce their carbon footprint — from minimizing single-use plastics to purchasing carbon offsets for air travel — which ultimately can also reduce costs for clients, say M’Lynn Phillips and Lisa Walters at IMS Legal Strategies.

  • Opinion

    Anti-DEI Complaints Filed With EEOC Carry No Legal Weight

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    Recently filed complaints against several companies' diversity, equity and inclusion programs alleging unlawful discrimination against white people do not require a response from the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, and should not stop employers from rooting out ongoing discriminatory practices, says former EEOC general counsel David Lopez.

  • 4 Ways AI Tools Can Improve Traditional Merger Analyses

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    Government officials at the American Bar Association's annual antitrust spring meeting last week reinforced the view that competition cases will increasingly rely on sophisticated data analysis, so companies will likewise need to use Big Tech quantitative techniques to improve traditional merger analyses, say Patrick Bajari, Gianmarco Calanchi and Tega Akati-Udi at Keystone.

  • Cos. Should Mind Website Tech As CIPA Suits Keep Piling Up

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    Businesses should continue evaluating their use of website technologies and other data-gathering software and review the disclosures in their privacy policies, amid an increase so far in 2024 of class actions alleging violations of the California Invasion of Privacy Act's pen register and trap-and-trace provisions, say attorneys at Sheppard Mullin.

  • Questions Persist After Ruling Skirts $925M TCPA Award Issue

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    After an Oregon federal court's recent Wakefield v. ViSalus ruling that the doctrine of constitutional avoidance precluded it from deciding whether a $925 million Telephone Consumer Protection Act damages award was constitutionally sound, further guidance is needed on when statutory damages violate due process, says Michael Klotz at O'Melveny.

  • Benzene Contamination Concerns: Drugmakers' Next Steps

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    After a citizen petition to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and a flurry of class actions over benzene contamination in benzoyl peroxide acne products, affected manufacturers should consider a thoughtful approach that includes assembling internal data and possibly contacting the FDA for product-specific discussions, say attorneys at Morgan Lewis.

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