Legal

A request by the North Carolina Department of Revenue for personally identifiable Amazon.com customer data that could be linked to purchases is unconstitutional because it violates Internet users' rights to privacy and free speech, the American Civil Liberties Union said Wednesday. The ACLU, on behalf of seven Amazon customers, has intervened in a lawsuit that Amazon filed in April over an information request from the North Carolina Department of Revenue for all the purchase records of customers with a North Carolina shipping address since August 2003, as part of a tax audit.

Retailers stand to reap billions from the financial-overhaul legislation being finalized by Congress this week, possibly giving them a long-sought victory by slashing the "swipe fees" that credit-card companies charge merchants for every debit-card transaction. Members of the House and Senate announced an agreement Monday to include the debit-card fee cuts in the final version of the overhaul bill — a loss for the financial industry, which had mounted a furious campaign to eliminate or water down the proposed regulations.

The two top members of a House-Senate conference committee negotiating over financial services reform legislation say an amendment requiring the Federal Reserve to determine “reasonable” swipe fees for debit card purchases could see some changes but will stay in the final version of the bill. The conference committee is working from the Senate version of the bill, which includes an amendment sponsored by Majority Whip Richard Durbin, D-Ill., that would require the Federal Reserve to establish rules that would result in the setting of “reasonable and proportional” rates for the interchange or “swipe” fees that Visa and MasterCard banks charge merchants to process debit card transactions. The amendment is not included in the House bill.

The Direct Marketing Association (DMA) today was joined by 47 other trade associations and business coalitions in sending a letter to each of the conferees on H.R. 4173, the “Restoring American Financial Stability Act” (RAFSA), urging them to keep language that would dramatically expand the powers of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) out of the final bill.

A proposal to help balance Michigan's budget has gained enough momentum that it's stirring a tax fight between the state's retailers and some lawmakers. Retailers, already hard hit by the recession, are fighting a bill to reduce the amount of money they receive as an incentive to quickly send sales tax payments to Lansing. The proposal, which would cost the state's retailers an estimated $5.8 million annually, would cause them to raise prices, lay off workers or close stores to offset the impact, said James Hallan, president and CEO of the Michigan Retailers Association.

The Direct Marketing Association (DMA) is pleased to announce that although the Senate has passed a far-reaching bill that would affect “virtually every aspect of the financial industry” according to The New York Times, the bill does not include the expansion of the Federal Trade Commission’s rulemaking power.

A recent decision of the Federal Circuit Court of Appeals, in the case of Forest Group Inc. v. Bon Tool Co., is a warning to marketers regarding patent references in label-
ing goods. Moreover, it's inspired a new wave of litigation over "false marking" — i.e., labeling products as patented that aren't, in fact, covered by…

Last year, 12 states had do-not-mail legislation under consideration. But none of the bills were enacted. This year, however, bills already have been refiled in some states, and new bills have been introduced in Connecticut, Florida and New Jersey. With varying enforcement mechanisms, the laws would prohibit mailing unsolicited direct marketing materials to persons who enter their names and addresses to state-maintained registries.

In the first century B.C., the Roman author Publilius Syrus wrote: “A good reputation is more valuable than money.” More than two millennia later, it remains true that a merchant’s brand, which carries its reputation, is its most valuable asset. Consequently, the piratical misuse of brand names on the Internet is a persistent problem that plagues many online retailers.

Very little PR I get in my inbox grabs my eye, but this one warrants a little attention. A few weeks ago, I was nudged by a Dublin, Ireland-based data management firm called Ethoca, which has developed something across the pond called the Collaborative Fraud Management platform and hosts The Global Fraud Fighting Community. This is a group of European merchants who pool their transaction information to determine and share with other group members those potential transactions that are legit or fraudulent. Now Ethoca has brought its efforts to the U.S., and one of the first merchants it signed up was multichannel computer equipment