Legal
Urban Outfitters has been busy capitalizing on Native American culture with items such as the "Navajo Hipster Panty." Apparently, these types of products were enough to warrant a cease and desist letter. According to Sasha Houston Brown, Urban Outfitters has already received such a notice from the Navajo Nation Attorney General, who also doesn't seem too keen on things like a Navajo-print flask.
Copycatting another designer's ideas never turns out well. Especially when that designer often lends you nice jewelry. Because as Kim Kardashian learned recently, that designer will take away all those nice, free jewels and bad-mouth you to the press.
The disconnect between how executives and consumer privacy advocates view email marketing was never more obvious than during the latest hijinks surrounding Barnes & Noble's acquisition of Borders' customer data, including email addresses. As part of the Borders bankruptcy proceedings, Barnes & Noble paid $13.9 million for Borders' intellectual property, including its 48-million customer database.
Gov. Bill Haslam confirmed a sales tax deal with online retailer Amazon.com on Oct. 6, announcing thousands of additional jobs and what he hopes will be the resolution of a long-running dispute within the business community.
Mary Bach of Pennsylvania sued Wal-Mart for charging her two cents more than the price on the tag for a package of sausages. Bach was awarded $180, but her aim wasn't to recoup savings she could have lost between the sofa cushions.
Merchants and their customers will save billions of dollars now that new Federal Reserve regulations cutting debit card swipe fees roughly in half have taken effect, the National Retail Federation said.
Liz Claiborne has won the dismissal of a shareholder lawsuit that accused the company of misrepresenting its relationships with Macy's and J.C. Penney. U.S. District Judge Richard Holwell said that the investors failed to show that Liz Claiborne intended to mislead them about the relationships.
The Supreme Court of California recently ruled that collecting ZIP codes from customers who paid by credit card may subject merchants to class-action lawsuits. Dozens of such actions have already been filed, including against retailers "yet to be named." Reported settlements paid by some companies have exceeded $25 million. The lesson is clear: All retailers should review their customer information collection practices in light of California law (and other states) to avoid becoming the target of class-action lawyers.
Reebok agreed to refund $25 million to customers who bought its popular EasyTone and RunTone shoes as part of a settlement with the Federal Trade Commission, which says the company didn't have the science to back its “better way to a better butt” claims.
Groupon was hit with a second employee lawsuit alleging that the company failed to pay overtime. It's only the latest in a series of major setbacks for the social coupon site, casting its future into doubt.