Legal

Forever 21 is being accused of ripping off a design from label Bow & Drape. Bow & Drape created a sweatshirt that reads “hangry” and features different food items like pizza, tacos and bananas. One of the label’s founders, Aubrie Pagano, noticed a very similar sweatshirt for sale at Forever 21. Here are the two…

A class-action lawsuit worth more than $5 million has been filed against Williams-Sonoma, accusing the retailer and its subsidiaries, Pottery Barn and West Elm, of misleading customers. The lawsuit states that Williams-Sonoma had advertised sheets as “Signature 600- Thread-Count Sateen Bedding” made in Italy of Egyptian cotton. When the sheets were analyzed by experts, they were found…

Best Buy has agreed to pay a $3.8 million fine for selling recalled products from 2010 to 2015. In total, Best Buy sold about 600 recalled items over 16 different types of consumer products. Federal law prohibits any retailer from selling consumer products that have been publicly recalled. A spokesperson for the retailer tells The Wall Street…

A federal jury has concluded that Costco Wholesale Corp. should pay Tiffany & Co. $5.5 million for selling diamond engagement rings bearing Tiffany’s name. The $5.5 million represents the amount of profit Costco made from the sale of the rings — 2,500 in total — according to the jury. However, at the trial’s beginning, Costco…

The U.S. House of Representatives last week approved a measure to delay by six months the Obama administration's rule to extend mandatory overtime pay to more than 4 million workers, despite a White House promise to veto the bill. The House passed the legislation on a partisan vote of 246-177, with five Democrats joining 241 Republicans in favor of moving…

Twenty-one states and a coalition of business and industry groups filed separate federal lawsuits against the U.S. Department of Labor, U.S. Labor Secretary Thomas E. Perez and the top Wage and Hour Administrator, David Weil, to try to block the federal overtime regulation changes. The changes are set to go into effect on Dec. 1,…

A New Jersey couple on Friday filed a class-action lawsuit against Costco Wholesale, claiming it has been illegally overcharging them — and potentially hundreds of  thousands of other customers — by charging sales tax on toilet tissue purchases in violation of state law. Toilet tissue sold for household use is exempt from New Jersey's 7 percent…

On Wednesday, we reported that things weren't looking too good for Golfsmith International Inc. Well, the retailer has now filed for bankruptcy protection. In addition to here in the U.S., Golfsmith also sought protection under Canada’s chapter 11 equivalent. The company is based in Austin, Texas, but is hoping to get some control of its…

Golfsmith, the country's largest golf retailer, has failed to find a buyer for itself and could file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in just a few days, according to the New York Post. Sources say Golfsmith, fighting an overall downturn in sales and burdened by debt, could end up a target of Dick's Sporting Goods if it…

Aeropostale lives to fight another day. Bloomberg reports the retailer won court permission to sell its assets to buyers led by Simon Property Group Inc. and General Growth Properties Inc after the landlords banded together with liquidators to save jobs and stores. The Sept. 2 auction revealed that with a $243 million bid, Aeropostale will…