Retail & E-Commerce

  • March 18, 2024

    GOP Rep. Calls For Crackdown On EV Threats From China

    Rep. Jim Banks, R-Ind., a member of the House select committee on China's Communist Party and a U.S. Senate candidate, has asked the Commerce Department to investigate the imports of electronic vehicles and their components and the possible security threats to the United States from electronics from China.

  • March 18, 2024

    Airgun Exec Hiding Biz Info From Overseer, Court Told

    The receiver of an airgun seller asked the North Carolina Business Court to tighten restrictions on its chief executive, who is accused of using the company as his personal piggy bank, telling the court that the executive is believed to be taking company property and money following "deteriorating cooperation."

  • March 18, 2024

    Amazon Again Tries To Sink NBA 2K Facial Scan Claims

    Amazon is insisting it did not run afoul of Illinois' biometric privacy law, saying an amended complaint in a proposed class action in Washington federal court has failed to show the e-commerce company's cloud service collected or disclosed facial scans of teens playing the hit game NBA 2K.

  • March 18, 2024

    Sen. Vance Backs Suit To Declare Google Common Carrier

    Sen. J.D. Vance, R-Ohio, and an anti-monopoly nonprofit have backed the Ohio state attorney general's lawsuit seeking to declare Google as a common carrier.

  • March 18, 2024

    Amazon, Bumkins Accused Of Not Flagging 'Superbibs' Chemical

    Amazon and baby products manufacturer Bumkins Finer Baby Products face a lawsuit in California state court alleging they sell DC Comics-themed "Superbibs" meant for feeding infants without warning customers as the law requires that they contain perfluorooctanoic acid, a "forever chemical" that may cause certain cancers and reproductive problems.

  • March 18, 2024

    NY Gov. Audits Pot Regulator After Troubled Rollout

    New York Gov. Kathy Hochul on Monday announced an audit of the Empire State's embattled cannabis regulator to address the rocky implementation of the adult-use marijuana market, which has been plagued by delays, litigation and an explosion of unlicensed sellers.

  • March 18, 2024

    Canada Dry Gets Va. Wage Claim Trimmed From OT Suit In Pa.

    A Pennsylvania federal judge agreed Monday to toss Virginia state wage claims from a Pennsylvania lawsuit accusing Canada Dry of miscalculating overtime wages for eligible workers, saying a 2022 amendment that set overtime pay limits dooms the state wage claims.

  • March 18, 2024

    Singer Seeks Chancery OK To Pull Plug On Licensee Rights

    The owner of rights and trademarks of Singer sewing machine products has sued its North American distributor in Delaware's Court of Chancery, seeking a court declaration that it could end their contract because the distributor failed to meet minimum billing and royalties requirements.

  • March 18, 2024

    Developers Say Mich. Township Thwarted Pot Dispensary

    A local cannabis advocacy group that includes real estate developers has sued a Michigan township in federal court, alleging elected officials have impeded a proposal to build a medical and adult-use dispensary despite residents' support and additional tax revenue the municipality will reap.

  • March 18, 2024

    ​​​​​​​Amyris Gets OK To Settle Pot Co.'s $15M Trade Secret Suit

    A Delaware bankruptcy judge has approved biotechnology company Amyris' $15.1 million settlement with cannabinoid manufacturer Lavvan, resolving yearslong litigation and arbitration proceedings alleging the debtor misused its then-business partner's trade secrets.

  • March 18, 2024

    Insurer Settles Target Manager's Suit Over Disability Benefits

    An insurance company reached a deal with a Target Corp. manager to end his lawsuit alleging the company unlawfully stopped the disability payments he was receiving to treat his post-traumatic stress disorder stemming from a George Floyd protest, a filing in Wisconsin federal court said.

  • March 18, 2024

    'Bootleg' E-Books Not Fair Use, Book Publishers Tell 2nd Circ.

    Four book publishers urged the Second Circuit on Friday to uphold a lower court's finding that the Internet Archive infringed their copyrights with its free e-book lending program, saying the nonprofit distributes "bootleg ebooks from its website to anyone in the world."

  • March 18, 2024

    Brita Brings ITC Filter Patent Row To Federal Circuit

    The Clorox Co.'s Brita brand has urged the Federal Circuit to overturn a decision that found it failed to show that language in a patent covering the brand's "gravity flow" filter was specific enough to earn legal protection.

  • March 18, 2024

    Marriott Must Face Suit For Booting Kidswear Wholesalers

    Marriott International must face a suit by two clothing wholesalers who were kicked out of rooms at a Fairfield Inn just outside Boston for violating an undisclosed "non-solicitation" policy, a Massachusetts appellate court said Monday.

  • March 18, 2024

    Catching Up With Delaware's Chancery Court

    Multimillion-dollar e-cigarette settlements, $4 billion in stock buybacks and a $6.1 million appraisal tweak were among the big-dollar items logged in the Delaware Court of Chancery's ledger last week. Also on the docket: a Panama port project, a news outlet's defamation case, drone disputes and a flood of mail from Tesla shareholders. In case you missed it, here's all the latest from the Chancery Court.

  • March 18, 2024

    Joann Hits Ch. 11 With $1B Secured Debt, Creditor Deal

    Fabric retailer Joann Inc., better known as Joann Fabrics, filed for bankruptcy in Delaware on Monday with $1 billion in secured debt and an agreement with its creditors to trim $505 million from its balance sheet.

  • March 18, 2024

    Commerce Finds Turkish Paper Shopping Bags Dumped In US

    The U.S. Department of Commerce announced anti-dumping tariffs on paper shopping bags from Turkey, the first out of nine countries to get a final determination in a probe on whether the bags are hurting the U.S. through unfairly priced imports.

  • March 18, 2024

    Justices Won't Review PTAB Ax Of Fabric Printing Patents

    The U.S. Supreme Court declined Monday to hear an appeal arguing that four patents on transferring images to fabric were wrongly invalidated in a challenge by Avery Products and others because the decision did not explain why the patents were obvious.

  • March 18, 2024

    Justices Won't Review McDonald's No-Poach Case

    A proposed class action targeting McDonald's past use of no-poach provisions in its franchise agreements will move ahead after the Supreme Court on Monday turned down McDonald's petition to review a Seventh Circuit ruling reviving the case.

  • March 15, 2024

    Feds' PACER Gaffe Doesn't Mean A Sure Win For Magnet Co.

    Federal prosecutors may suffer a setback in a case accusing a magnet manufacturer of sharing sensitive military data with China after accidentally publicizing the same information, but they may have an out under a regulation governing publishing in the public domain.

  • March 15, 2024

    9th Circ. Says No Arbitration For Rent-To-Own Class Claims

    The Ninth Circuit on Thursday said a rent-to-own company can't get a putative class action over its furniture rental fees sent to arbitration, saying the contract provision is unenforceable under California law.

  • March 15, 2024

    FTC Inks $26M Deal With Two Cypriot Tech Scheme Cos.

    The Federal Trade Commission said it has reached a $26 million settlement in D.C. federal court with two Cyprus-based companies that it accuses of defrauding elderly consumers out of tens of millions of dollars in a tech support scam.

  • March 15, 2024

    Bank Groups Defend Texas Home For CFPB's Late-Fee Rule Suit

    A trade group coalition suing to overturn the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's new credit card late-fee rule pressed Thursday in Texas federal court for an immediate injunction against the measure, pushing back on the agency's claims that the case should be bounced for ineffective "forum shopping."

  • March 15, 2024

    Agriculture Biz Seeks Probe Into Chinese And Indian Weed Killers

    An agriculture company is calling on U.S. trade agencies to investigate Chinese and Indian herbicide imports, alleging that rivals abroad are using unfair trade practices to get ahead in the U.S. market.

  • March 15, 2024

    Mexico Protests New USDA Label Rule For Made-In-USA Meat

    Mexico's Ministry of Economy said the U.S. Department of Agriculture's new rule limiting a "Product of U.S.A." label to meat derived from animals born, raised and slaughtered in the U.S. will prove costly to both Mexican producers and U.S. consumers.

Expert Analysis

  • Md. May See Vigorous Resale Price Maintenance Enforcement

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    In Maryland, indications of a new focus on resale price maintenance agreements are significant because state prosecution in this area has been rare, particularly outside California, say attorneys at DLA Piper.

  • CSA Case Could Shift Intrastate Commercial Cannabis

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    In Canna Provisions v. Merrick Garland, cannabis companies argue that the Controlled Substances Act is unconstitutional as applied to intrastate commercial cannabis activity; the Massachusetts federal court's eventual decision will be important to the cannabis industry for several reasons, including that the threat of federal enforcement would disappear overnight, says Hilary Bricken at Husch Blackwell.

  • What Recent Study Shows About AI's Promise For Legal Tasks

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    Amid both skepticism and excitement about the promise of generative artificial intelligence in legal contexts, the first randomized controlled trial studying its impact on basic lawyering tasks shows mixed but promising results, and underscores the need for attorneys to proactively engage with AI, says Daniel Schwarcz at University of Minnesota Law School.

  • Shaping Speech Policies After NLRB's BLM Protest Ruling

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    After the National Labor Relations Board decided last month that a Home Depot employee was protected by federal labor law when they wore a Black Lives Matter slogan on their apron, employers should consider four questions in order to mitigate legal risks associated with workplace political speech policies, say Louis Cannon and Cassandra Horton at Baker Donelson.

  • Tips On Numerical Range From Fed. Circ. Philip Morris Ruling

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    The Federal Circuit's recent RAI v. Philip Morris decision that a patent provided sufficient written description to support a claimed numerical range offers several takeaways for practitioners, including the need for a cautious approach to criticism of ranges, say attorneys at BCLP.

  • Fed. Circ. Patent Lesson: No Contradiction, No Indefiniteness

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    The Federal Circuit’s recent ruling in Maxwell v. Amperex Technology highlights the complexities of construing patent claims when seemingly contradictory limitations are present, and that when a narrowing limitation overrides a broader one, they do not necessarily contradict each other, says Roy Wepner at Kaplan Breyer.

  • Legal Considerations For Circular Economy Strategies

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    As circular economy goals — generating revenue at multiple points in a product's life cycle — become nearly ubiquitous in corporate sustainability practices, companies should reassess existing strategies by focusing on government incentives, regulations, and reporting and disclosure requirements, say Rachel Saltzman and Erin Grisby at Hunton.

  • 11th Circ. FMLA Ruling Deepens Divide Over Causation

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    The Eleventh Circuit's recent ruling in Lapham v. Walgreen distinguishes the circuit as the loudest advocate for the but-for causation standard for assessing Family and Medical Leave Act retaliation claims, though employers in other jurisdictions may encounter less favorable standards and the U.S. Supreme Court will likely have to address the circuit split eventually, say attorneys at Benesch.

  • 2nd Circ.'s Nine West Ruling Clarifies Safe Harbor Confusion

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    The Second Circuit’s recent ruling in Nine West’s Chapter 11 suit clarifies that courts in the circuit will apply a transfer-by-transfer analysis to determine the applicability of Section 546(e) of the Bankruptcy Code, and that to be safe harbored, a financial institution must act as an agent with respect to the specific transfer at issue, says Leonardo Trivigno at Carter Ledyard.

  • Enforcement Risk Amid Increased Consumer Data Use

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    While no state has introduced a private right of action for noncompliance with a comprehensive consumer privacy law — except for the California Consumer Privacy Act's data breach provision — organizations and retailers face risk from enforcement actions by state attorneys general and privacy regulators, say attorneys at Dentons.

  • Business Litigators Have A Source Of Untapped Fulfillment

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    As increasing numbers of attorneys struggle with stress and mental health issues, business litigators can find protection against burnout by remembering their important role in society — because fulfillment in one’s work isn’t just reserved for public interest lawyers, say Bennett Rawicki and Peter Bigelow at Hilgers Graben.

  • Opinion

    The Problems In Calif. Draft Behavioral Ad Privacy Regs

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    The California Privacy Protection Agency has an opportunity with its automated decision-making technology and profiling rulemaking to harmonize California's regulation of data-driven advertising, but this will be a failure unless several things are changed in its proposed treatment of behavioral advertising, say Alan Friel and Kyle Fath at Squire Patton.

  • A New Push To Clear Up Marijuana's Foggy Legal Status

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    A recently publicized U.S. Food and Drug Administration recommendation to reschedule marijuana has reignited discourse over the drug's federal legal status — and although rescheduling would mitigate the legal risks for the industry and drastically increase the resources available for industry participants, the path forward will not be clear cut, say Joseph Cioffi and Louis DiLorenzo at Davis+Gilbert.

  • Series

    Skiing Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    A lifetime of skiing has helped me develop important professional skills, and taught me that embracing challenges with a spirit of adventure can allow lawyers to push boundaries, expand their capabilities and ultimately excel in their careers, says Andrea Przybysz at Tucker Ellis.

  • Think Like A Lawyer: Forget Everything You Know About IRAC

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    The mode of legal reasoning most students learn in law school, often called “Issue, Rule, Application, Conclusion,” or IRAC, erroneously frames analysis as a separate, discrete step, resulting in disorganized briefs and untold obfuscation — but the fix is pretty simple, says Luke Andrews at Poole Huffman.

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