Retail & E-Commerce

  • January 13, 2026

    Emotional Distress Claim Axed In Hartford Fire Coverage Row

    A federal magistrate judge dismissed a business owner's claim that Hartford Underwriters Insurance Co. intentionally caused her emotional distress through a "berating" phone call about a coverage dispute, ruling that she fell short of her burden to allege extreme conduct.

  • January 13, 2026

    Google Gets 6 Ad Tech Rivals' Complaints Consolidated To 2

    The six antitrust lawsuits from Google's advertising placement technology rivals will soon be consolidated into two, under a New York federal judge's ruling Tuesday combining the four suits originally filed in Virginia and pairing up the two filed in New York.

  • January 13, 2026

    Ill. Justices Mull COVID Screening Pay Under State Law

    The Illinois Supreme Court should leave decades of understanding surrounding the statutory term "workweek" intact and rule that the state's minimum wage law incorporates federal limitations on compensable preliminary activities, as finding otherwise would revive a short-lived overtime regime Congress considered "disastrous," Amazon argued Tuesday.

  • January 13, 2026

    Google Moves To Toss Penske Media's AI Overview Suit

    Google has urged a D.C. federal court to dismiss Penske Media Corp.'s antitrust lawsuit accusing it of unlawfully coercing publishers into providing content for artificial intelligence-generated answers at the top of Google search result pages, painting its conduct as a lawful "refusal to deal" on PMC's preferred terms.

  • January 13, 2026

    Starbucks Misled Patrons On Coffee Supplier Ethics, Suit Says

    Two consumers are targeting Starbucks for touting "100% Ethical Coffee Sourcing" on product labels despite reports of forced labor and other human rights violations on supplying farms around the world, according to a proposed class action launched in Washington state federal court Tuesday.

  • January 13, 2026

    Battery Co. Urges 11th Circ. To Undo $20M Award In IP Feud

    A battery charger company told the Eleventh Circuit on Tuesday that it should reverse a roughly $20 million award after a jury found it ran Amazon advertisements that infringed a rival's trademark, arguing it used a generic product description and didn't cause confusion among consumers. 

  • January 13, 2026

    Oak Street Exec's Ex-Partner Must Forfeit $617K In Assets

    Federal authorities can delve into the assets of a man who made illegal insider trades of CVS stock based on information from his domestic partner so that they can recover $617,000 he agreed to forfeit as part of a plea deal, a Pennsylvania federal judge said Tuesday.

  • January 13, 2026

    CEO Of Auto Mat Maker WeatherTech Tapped For FTC Spot

    The founder and CEO of automobile accessories-maker WeatherTech, David MacNeil, was nominated to a seat on the U.S. Federal Trade Commission by President Donald Trump, the White House announced Tuesday. 

  • January 13, 2026

    2nd Circ. Hints Ex-Luxottica Worker Has ERISA Standing

    Second Circuit judges sounded sympathetic Tuesday to the idea that a former Luxottica employee has standing to pursue changes to its defined benefit pension plan, expressing skepticism at the company's notion that her case is barred because she is seeking unavailable remedies.

  • January 13, 2026

    Full Fed. Circ. Asked To Reconsider Car Seat Patent Case

    Wonderland Switzerland AG wants the full Federal Circuit to take another look at a panel's December reversal of part of a ruling that Evenflo Co. Inc. infringed one of its car seat patents, saying the suit involves a regularly occurring question in patent law.

  • January 13, 2026

    Fed. Circ. Backs PTAB's Axing Of UV Disinfectant Patent

    The Federal Circuit on Tuesday issued a one-word order affirming a Patent Trial and Appeal Board decision invalidating claims in a patent covering technology for using UV light for sanitation, declining to take on the inventor's challenge to the board's obviousness determinations.

  • January 13, 2026

    Squires Institutes 8 Patent Reviews, Rebuffs 47 Petitions

    U.S. Patent and Trademark Office Director John Squires has denied 47 requests for America Invents Act patent reviews and granted eight other petitions, continuing his practice of spurning most patent challenges that reach his desk since he took over the handling of institution decisions.

  • January 13, 2026

    DOJ Fights For May Trial Against Agri Stats

    Justice Department attorneys pushed a Minnesota federal judge in oral arguments Tuesday to let them go to trial in May on claims that Agri Stats' protein industry reports help major producers hike prices, arguing they're entitled to leapfrog private plaintiffs and the company cannot toss or winnow their allegations.

  • January 13, 2026

    Lawmakers Eye 2-Year Delay On Hemp Ban Implementation

    A bipartisan group of Congress members led by Rep. Jim Baird, R-Ind., on Tuesday introduced a bill that would delay implementation of a national ban on most hemp products by an additional two years.

  • January 13, 2026

    Bath & Body Works Investor Sues Over Co.'s Growth Claims

    Retail chain Bath & Body Works Inc. was hit with a proposed shareholder class action accusing it of misleading investors about the success of its product expansion strategy and leaning heavily on frequent promotions to drive unsustainable growth.

  • January 13, 2026

    NJ Gov. Signs Bill Regulating Intoxicating Hemp Products

    New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy has signed into law a bill regulating the sale of intoxicating hemp products, closing what the bill's sponsors called a loophole that allowed them to be sold without oversight.

  • January 13, 2026

    'Sazerac Stitches' TM Too Similar To Sazerac, Fed. Circ. Says

    The Federal Circuit on Tuesday affirmed a trademark tribunal's refusal to register "Sazerac Stitches" for a variety of home goods and decor items because of potential confusion with the distilled spirits and cocktail accessories sold by Sazerac Brands LLC.

  • January 13, 2026

    Hand & Stone Sent Info To Google, Meta And TikTok, Suit Says

    Spa franchise Hand & Stone has been hit with a potential class action filed by a customer claiming the chain violated her privacy rights by sending confidential health information taken from the company's website to Google, Meta and TikTok.

  • January 13, 2026

    Maine Alters Excise Tax Assessment On Camper Trailers

    Maine will change its application and collection of excise tax on camper trailers under a law that took effect without the signature of Democratic Gov. Janet Mills.

  • January 13, 2026

    House Clears African, Haitian Trade Agreement Extensions

    The U.S. House of Representatives late Monday overwhelmingly approved two bills that would extend regional trade agreements with African nations and Haiti for three years each, with both now headed to the U.S. Senate for approval.

  • January 13, 2026

    2 Firms Guide IPO Valuing Construction Rental Co. At $6.4B

    Columbia, Missouri-based construction equipment rental company EquipmentShare on Tuesday said it was seeking a valuation of up to $6.4 billion in an upcoming initial public offering guided by Davis Polk & Wardwell LLP and Latham & Watkins LLP.

  • January 13, 2026

    Hemp Co. Accuses Rival Of Using Pot-Based THC, Not Hemp

    Hemp-derived cannabinoid company CCT Sciences LLC is suing a competitor in Florida federal court, alleging that despite the rival's claims of using "natural" hemp-derived THC, it instead uses illegal cannabis derivatives in its products.

  • January 13, 2026

    Jordan Card Forgery Case Just A Grading Dispute, Jury Told

    A Washington man accused of a $2 million sports and trading card scam told a Manhattan federal jury Tuesday that he was charged in a "misguided" prosecution after a dispute with the major player in the card-grading world over a Michael Jordan rookie card.

  • January 12, 2026

    US Backs Tarnishment Provision Constitutionality At 9th Circ.

    Jack Daniel's has urged the Ninth Circuit to affirm a district court's ruling that a company's poop-themed "Bad Spaniels" dog toy tarnished the whiskey maker's trademark, while the federal government separately opposed the toy maker's contention that the Lanham Act's tarnishment provision violates the First Amendment.

  • January 12, 2026

    Attorneys Chastened By Fed. Circ.'s ITC Mixed Deadline Ruling

    A Federal Circuit decision concluding that certain mixed rulings from the U.S. International Trade Commission can generate different appeal deadlines, even when issued in the same document, is a reminder of just how strict courts can be when handling unclear appeal due dates, attorneys told Law360.

Expert Analysis

  • The Metamorphosis Of The Major Questions Doctrine

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    The so-called major questions doctrine arose as a counterweight to Chevron deference over the past few decades, but invocations of the doctrine have persisted in the year since Chevron was overturned, suggesting it still has a role to play in reining in agency overreach, say attorneys at Crowell & Moring.

  • Arguing The 8th Amendment For Reduction In FCA Penalties

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    While False Claims Act decisions lack consistency in how high the judgment-to-damages ratio in such cases can be before it becomes unconstitutional, defense counsel should cite the Eighth Amendment's excessive fines clause in pre-trial settlement negotiations, and seek penalty decreases in post-judgment motions and on appeal, says Scott Grubman at Chilivis Grubman.

  • Business Takeaways Following CCPA Enforcement Actions

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    Advisories and recent enforcement activity by the California Privacy Protection Agency against Honda and Todd Snyder underscore the agency's enforcement interest in the intersection of data minimization and consumer rights, and could make it more challenging for a business to provide a streamlined consumer rights process, say attorneys at Covington.

  • Compliance Lessons From 1st-Ever Product Safety Sentences

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    A California federal judge’s recent sentencing of two former Gree USA executives in a landmark Consumer Product Safety Act case serves as a reminder of the federal government’s willingness to pursue criminal prosecution of individuals who fail to report safety hazards, as well as companies’ need to strengthen their reporting and compliance programs, say attorneys at Cooley.

  • GENIUS Act Creates 'Commodity' Uncertainty For Stablecoins

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    Half a century ago, Congress made trading in onion futures on commodity exchanges unlawful, and payment stablecoins could soon face a similarly unstable fate in the markets as the GENIUS Act heads to the president's desk for signature, says Peter Malyshev at Cadwalader.

  • Series

    Playing Mah-Jongg Makes Me A Better Mediator

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    Mah-jongg rewards patience, pattern recognition, adaptability and keen observation, all skills that are invaluable to my role as a mediator, and to all mediating parties, says Marina Corodemus.

  • Series

    Law School's Missed Lessons: Navigating Client Trauma

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    Law schools don't train students to handle repeated exposure to clients' traumatic experiences, but for litigators practicing in areas like civil rights and personal injury, success depends on the ability to view cases clinically and to recognize when you may need to seek help, says Katie Bennett at Robins Kaplan.

  • Challenging A Class Representative's Adequacy And Typicality

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    Recent cases highlight that a named plaintiff cannot certify a putative class action unless they can meet all the applicable requirements of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, so defendants should consider challenging a plaintiff's ability to meet typicality and adequacy requirements early and often, say attorneys at Womble Bond.

  • Opinion

    4 Former Justices Would Likely Frown On Litigation Funding

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    As courts increasingly confront cases involving hidden litigation finance contracts, the jurisprudence of four former U.S. Supreme Court justices establishes a constitutional framework that risks erosion by undisclosed financial interests, says Roland Eisenhuth at the American Property Casualty Insurance Association.

  • What To Know About Bill Aiming To Curb CIPA

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    A bill pending in the California Assembly would amend the California Invasion of Privacy Act to allow for the use of website tracking technologies for commercial business purposes, limiting class actions seeking damages under the act for industry standard practices, say Katherine Alphonso and Avazeh Pourhamzeh at Kaufman Dolowich.

  • How Attys Can Use AI To Surface Narratives In E-Discovery

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    E-discovery has reached a turning point where document review is no longer just about procedural tasks like identifying relevance and redacting privilege — rather, generative artificial intelligence tools now allow attorneys to draw connections, extract meaning and tell a coherent story, says Rose Jones at Hilgers Graben.

  • Gauging The Risky Business Of Business Risk Disclosures

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    With the recent rise of securities fraud actions based on external events — like a data breach or environmental disaster — that drive down stock prices, risk disclosures have become more of a sword for the plaintiffs bar than a shield for public companies, now the subject of a growing circuit split, say attorneys at A&O Shearman.

  • Series

    Playing The Violin Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    Playing violin in a string quartet reminds me that flexibility, ambition, strong listening skills, thoughtful leadership and intentional collaboration are all keys to a successful legal practice, says Julie Park at MoFo.

  • DOJ Enforcement Trends To Watch In 2nd Half Of 2025

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    Recent investigations, settlements and a declination to prosecute suggest that controlling the flow of goods into and out of the country, and redressing what the administration sees as reverse discrimination, are likely to be at the forefront of the U.S. Department of Justice's enforcement agenda the rest of this year, say attorneys at Baker Botts.

  • Series

    NY Banking Brief: All The Notable Legal Updates In Q2

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    In the second quarter of the year, New York utilized every available tool to fill gaps left by federal retrenchment from consumer finance issues, including sweeping updates to its consumer protection framework and notable amendments to cybersecurity rules, say attorneys at Steptoe.

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