Legal

Ikea has agreed to pay a $50 million settlement to the families of three children killed by the company’s dressers tipping over and crushing them. The settlement will be split evenly between the three families living in Pennsylvania, Washington and Minnesota. In addition to the settlement, Ikea will be donating $50,000 to three children’s hospitals…

The Republican House Ways and Means Committee’s “A Better Way” tax reform proposal can affect retailers in a big way. The plan, proposed in June, is complex, but CNBC breaks it down into three major pieces. First, the law would institute a 20 percent corporate tax — decreasing it from the current 35 percent. Second, it…

On Tuesday, six retailers agreed to stop the practice of on-call scheduling after they received inquiries about it from a group of state attorneys general. They join a growing number of retailers that have vowed to ditch on-call scheduling and give their employees more predictable hours. Aeropostale, Carter’s, David’s Tea, Disney, PacSun and Zumiez all said…

Bed Bath & Beyond is being sued by a group of New Jersey workers who claim the company has been shorting its employees of overtime pay for years. The class-action lawsuit accuses the company of violating New Jersey's Wage and Hour Law by not paying some of its employees time-and-a-half for hours worked over 40 hours. The salaried employees were allegedly…

American Apparel won court approval to use a previously announced $30 million financing package from Encina Business Credit, according to the The Wall Street Journal. The bankruptcy trustee for American Apparel’s earlier Chapter 11 (from which it emerged in February) last week advocated this second bankruptcy action be shut down with prejudice, saying it's an “egregious” and…

The U.S. Supreme Court yesterday let stand a Colorado tax law that pressures online retailers to collect sales tax. In its latest order list, the Court announced that it won’t hear a challenge to a February ruling by the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that sided with Colorado in a lawsuit from the retail industry.…

The Los Angeles city attorney’s office has sued four retailers, alleging deceptive advertising that it says misled shoppers into believing that thousands of products were on sale at a hefty discount. The retailers — J.C. Penney, Sears, Kohl’s and Macy’s — falsely advertised high “list” or “regular” prices on merchandise that was never actually for sale at that…

Between senior executives jumping ship during this critical shopping season and the latest round of store closures, Sears is struggling to hold on. CNBC reports sales at the department store have been dismal for some time now. Sales haven't been positive since the first quarter of 2010. Talks of Sears filing for bankruptcy have been…

More change is on the way for Staples. Reuters reports the office supplies retailer will be selling a controlling stake in its European business to private equity firm Cerberus Capital Management LP for €50 million ($53.65 million) to focus on its North American operations. Staples’ European unit consists of retail stores and an online business in…

Bankrupt retailer American Apparel is rushing to get its affairs in order before its bankruptcy auction in January. Most recently, it moved to close nine storefronts. American Apparel said in a court filing Wednesday it intends to shut down the nine poorly performing stores by the end of the month, and before a planned auction…