Legal

Skechers to Be Taken Private in $9.42B Deal
May 6, 2025 at 5:24 pm

Skechers has agreed to be taken private by 3G Capital for $9.42 billion in the footwear industry's biggest buyout to date, reports Reuters. The popular shoe brand is exiting public markets after 26 years as it grapples with the impact of steep U.S. tariffs. Investment firm 3G Capital has offered $63 per Skechers share in…

Rite Aid Files for Bankruptcy — Again
May 5, 2025 at 7:12 pm

Rite Aid on Monday announced it's filing for bankruptcy for a second time, barely just seven months after the retailer exited Chapter 11 and emerged as a private company. The financially strapped drug store chain said it's looking for a buyer, and re-filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection will help facilitate that process. Rite Aid…

Turning VAT Challenges Into a Competitive Advantage
April 28, 2025 at 8:33 am

Global retailers face constant whiplash as countries adjust their value-added tax (VAT) regulations, complicating cross-border operations. Recent updates — including zero-dollar VAT thresholds in Indonesia and the Philippines and revisions to the European Union’s Import One-Stop Shop (IOSS) — demand urgent attention. These unpredictable changes create more than administrative burdens. When customers encounter unexpected VAT…

U.S. House Privacy Working Group’s RFI Driving Stakeholder Responses to Inform its Crafting of New Federal Privacy and Data Security Legislation
April 6, 2025 at 11:37 am

On Feb. 12, Rep. Brett Guthrie (R-KY), the new chairman of the U.S. House Committee on Energy and Commerce, together with his vice chairman, Rep. John Joyce (R-PA), announced the creation of the Committee's data privacy working group (PWG) “to bring members and stakeholders together to explore a framework for legislation that can get across…

Can Retailers Now Benefit From Other Joint Employers’ Arbitration Clauses?
March 24, 2025 at 10:08 am

Much has been written — including by me in this publication one year ago — about the National Labor Relations Board’s (NLRB) 2023 attempt to make it easier for two companies to be considered joint employers. Instead of requiring one company to have direct and significant control over a worker, the new rule would have…

What New York's Fashion Workers Act Means for Retailers
February 19, 2025 at 9:59 am

Later this year, the New York Fashion Workers Act will go into effect on June 19. The Fashion Workers Act requires model management companies to register their businesses and imposes several duties and responsibilities on both model management companies and clients related to work with models in New York. Who is Covered by the Act…

De Minimis: From Benefit to Loophole
February 12, 2025 at 11:37 am

The word loophole often conjures a slightly negative image of closed-door lobbying efforts and provisions slipped into law a few years ago to favor a special interest. This is far from the case when it comes to de minimis, at least until recently. The de minimis law promotes trade and lowers barriers to global commerce…

Quiksilver, Billabong and Volcom US Stores to Close After Liberated Brands Files for Bankruptcy
February 10, 2025 at 12:31 pm

Liberated Brands filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection over the weekend and is looking to shutter its U.S. retail stores where it sold brands like Quiksilver, Billabong, and Volcom. The company said in a Monday press release that it filed for bankruptcy to "implement an orderly monetization and disposition of its businesses." It submitted a…

Show Me the Money: A New Wave of Pricing Transparency Laws
February 10, 2025 at 11:09 am

Every for-profit business faces the challenge of setting competitive prices while also generating a profit. An increasingly common solution to this conundrum has been to advertise one price and later disclose additional charges — e.g., hotels’ resort fees, e-ticketing platforms’ “handling” fees or even surcharges assessed against customers paying with a credit card. The consumer…

China Retaliates With Tariffs on US Imports
February 5, 2025 at 8:18 pm

China announced it was levying tariffs on select imported U.S. goods Tuesday in response to President Donald Trump's imposed 10 percent tariffs on China, which went into effect Tuesday. The Associated Press reported that China would implement a 15 percent tariff on coal and liquefied natural gas (LNG) products as well as a 10 percent…