Legal

After announcing PIN pads in some of its U.S. stores showed signs of tampering last month, Michaels was hit with lawsuits seeking class-action status. Three customers from Northern Illinois filed suits against the arts and crafts retailer claiming the company failed to take reasonable measures to protect its customers.

News emerged that the Gores Group, a private equity firm, might be looking to buy as many as half of Borders’ remaining stores out of bankruptcy. When the chain first filed for Chapter 11, many retail real estate insiders felt that the Borders locations slated for closing were good enough to be snapped up by alternate users.

Regulators in South Africa approved Wal-Mart's nearly $2.4 billion bid to buy a controlling share of Massmart Holdings Ltd. The Competition Tribunal of South Africa approved the deal on the condition that no job cuts take place for two years. It also requires the merged entity to give employment preference to 503 Massmart employees who lost their jobs.

Amazon, Overstock.com and similar companies may be facing new taxes in California. The state has passed a bill in the Assembly which will tax e-commerce sales, and now the legislation is on its way to the Senate. 

I often check the clickthough rates of our daily e-newsletter of aggregated and orignal content, ROI Report, to gauge what our audience of cross-channel retailers are interested in and concerned about. Lately, the clickthrough rates for articles about hackers and scammers targeting retailers and shoppers are through the roof

State legislatures continue to experiment with novel nexus legal theories in their persistent drive to compel use tax collection by retailers located beyond their borders. The most recent state efforts are aimed directly at online retailers through passage of so-called "Amazon laws."

Overstock.com today announced that it will award free Club O accounts ($20 value) preloaded with $10 in Club O Reward dollars to top customers in Connecticut, where the company canceled ad contracts because of the recently passed sales tax law.

Fruit basket and gifts retailer Harry & David plans to exit bankruptcy protection in late summer, it said in a reorganization plan filed. The company, which entered Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in March after struggling to remain afloat during the recession and as online and discount competitors proliferated, said the plan has the support of its official committee of unsecured creditors and about 81 percent of the company's noteholders.

Liberty Media, which owns interests in a broad range of electronic retailing, media, communications and entertainment businesses, made an offer to acquire Barnes & Noble for $17 per share in cash, which values the company at approximately $1 billion.

NCR Corp. has no plans on changing the name on its 9,000 Blockbuster Express DVD rental kiosks despite the letter it received from Dish Network demanding it to stop using the trademark.