Legal

As state and federal governments lift mandatory safety measures following CDC guidance, businesses have begun cautiously reducing their protocols for the first time for both their employees and customers. National retailers like Trader Joe’s, Costco, Walmart, Target, and Starbucks have announced that vaccinated customers do not have to wear masks, and many have dropped the…

Alex and Ani, the jewelry company that grew into a billion-dollar business, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in Delaware on Wednesday. The company, founded by Carolyn Rafaelian, listed between $100 million and $500 million each in assets and liabilities, according to the filing. Its largest unsecured debts are with property management companies. It also owes the…

L Brands said Tuesday it will spin off its Victoria’s Secret brand rather than sell it, reports CNBC. The company said it received interest from multiple potential buyers, but its board concluded that separating Victoria’s Secret and Bath & Body Works into two separate publicly traded companies would be a better option. In recent weeks,…

Macy's cannot offer the use of its Scan and Pay app for purchases from departments where employees make commissions, and must pay back commissions on such purchases, a labor relations arbitrator has ruled, reports RIS News. The determination applies to three collective bargaining agreements between Macy's and employees at stores in Boston and other New…

Amazon.com workers in Bessemer, Alabama, voted by a wide margin not to unionize last week, reports CNBC. The result culminates months of a closely watched and hard-fought election to unionize a U.S. Amazon facility for the first time, delivering a blow to organized labor. Approximately 5,800 workers at the Bessemer warehouse were eligible to vote…

Starbucks said Wednesday it has resolved allegations from the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) about alleged racial bias in its employee promotions, based on data from 2007 through 2011. In a letter to employees, CEO Kevin Johnson said that Starbucks does not know what prompted the EEOC allegations and that the company’s analysis of its…

Online marketplaces eBay, Etsy, Mercari, OfferUp, and Poshmark have launched "the Coalition to Protect America's Small Sellers" or the PASS Coalition, in opposition to a federal bill aimed at curtailing sales of fake and stolen goods through online marketplaces, reports Yahoo Finance. The federal bill in question is the bipartisan INFORM Act, which was introduced in…

Earlier this week, former Gap Inc. CEO Art Peck filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission to raise money for a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC). Peck’s SPAC, Good Commerce Acquisition Company, plans to buy companies that sell apparel, accessories, home goods, among other products. "Our objective is to create a next-generation consumer holding company by combining…

In this episode of Retail Right Now, Total Retail's Ashley Chiaradio and Kristina Stidham discuss an article recently published on Total Retail titled, “The Wave of COVID-19-Related Litigation for Retailers is Looking Like a Tsunami,” authored by Carrie Gonell and Kate McGuigan, partners at Morgan, Lewis & Bockius LLP. The authors discuss how retailers can…

Retailers, in response to the global pandemic, have spent the last year in a balancing act to keep their employees safe, their businesses afloat, and their policies compliant with ever-changing and sometimes conflicting federal, state, and local laws and orders. Despite these efforts, employers are facing not only pre-litigation demands and threats, but also litigation…