Legal

Groupon is being investigated by Britain’s competition regulator over concerns including unfair promotions and exaggerated savings. The U.K. Office of Fair Trading has been investigating Groupon’s British unit since July and expanded the probe after receiving a complaint from the country’s advertising watchdog.

The head of Utah-based Overstock.com argued before Congress yesterday that requiring online retail outlets to collect taxes in 45 states would be overly burdensome and benefit only big-box retailers.

The Retail Industry Leaders Association (RILA) is calling on Congress to step in to avert a work stoppage that would disrupt retail supply chains during the holiday shopping season and well into 2012, as railroad negotiators could lead to a nationwide shutdown on Dec. 6.

A U.S. judge has ordered Google, Yahoo, Twitter and Facebook, among others, to delist domain names linked to websites selling counterfeit goods. It represents a significant step in the ongoing battle against the sale of fake items online.

Good news for California deal-of-the-day addicts: the sales tax they have to pay when they use coupons purchased from Groupon, LivingSocial or other internet daily-deal sites has gone down. The California State Board of Equalization said sales tax should be levied only on what a Groupon user has paid for an item, not the list price of the item he’s getting.

Marks & Spencer has come under fire for a bus ad promoting its new range of Autograph lingerie. Following a number of complaints from concerned parents, the Advertising Standards Authority launched an investigation into Marks & Spencer's ad and has subsequently banned it for being "overtly sexual."

California shoppers have one last chance to avoid paying state sales taxes on many of their online purchases this holiday season. By the time Black Friday rolls around next year, Amazon.com and other internet retailers will have begun collecting sales taxes on purchases made by their California customers, the result of a deal struck with lawmakers in September.

A coalition of retail groups sued the Federal Reserve on Nov. 22, claiming the regulator ignored the law by setting too high a cap on the fees that banks can charge merchants for handling debit card purchases. 

The Occupy Wall Street movement is setting its sights on Black Friday, with the goal of "hitting the 1 percent where it hurts — right in the wallet," according to its website StopBlackFriday.com.