Legal

In an election that will have significant implications for a wide range of public policy issues facing the retail industry, Republicans rode a tide of voter discontent over job losses and the economy to win control of the House on Tuesday, while Democrats saw their majority narrowed in the Senate.

In early October, the Postal Regulatory Commission (PRC) was applauded by the mailing industry when it denied the USPS its exigent price increase, which would have taken effect in January 2011 for an average increase of 5.6 percent, with specific products receiving higher or lower increases (catalogs were expected to see increases ranging from 4 percent to 10 percent).

Movie rental company Blockbuster Inc. won court approval for $125 million in financing to keep operating while in bankruptcy, and to pay claims made by film studios.

A Massachusetts town has approved tough new measures on retailers who want to open between midnight and 4 a.m. on Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving that is traditionally one of the busiest shopping days of the year.

While mailers were still rejoicing over the victory on the exigency rate case, the USPS filed a lawsuit on Oct. 22 in the U.S. Court of Appeals to reverse the widely heralded Postal Regulatory Commission decision. The Postal Regulatory Commission on Sept. 30 denied the USPS's extraordinary request for a well-above-inflation-rate postage price increase that would have effectively nullified the Congressionally-imposed rate cap.

Inflation on consumer items is so low that the Federal Reserve sees a risk of deflation, a spiral of falling prices and wages. But the prices of some commodities, driven by demand from China and other hot economies, have been rising fast.

The credit card issuers, in an accord with the Justice Department, will let shopkeepers disclose processing fees to customers and offer discounts to those using cards that carry lower fees.

On June 30, the Direct Marketing Association (DMA) filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Denver against the executive secretary of the Colorado Department of Revenue challenging the constitutionality of Colorado's new consumer notice and reporting law that's targeted at out-of-state retailers who don't collect Colorado sales tax.

The Oklahoma Tax Commission has adopted, and Governor Brad Henry has signed, a set of emergency rules to implement a use tax notice law passed by the legislature at the end of May. A rulemaking to set the permanent rules will likely commence next spring. The effective date for the rules is October 1, 2010.

In a setback for the QVC shopping network, a federal judge has said that vitamin marketer Andrew Lessman, who sells supplements on the Home Shopping Network, may continue to use his blog to criticize competing products sold by QVC.