Legal

Many online merchants have been watching closely the saga of the Direct Marketing Association's (DMA) constitutional challenge to a 2010 Colorado law targeting remote sellers. This legislation would require out-of-state catalog and internet retailers that do not collect Colorado state and local sales tax to turn over customer transaction information to the Colorado Department of Revenue.

Wal-Mart was ordered by a federal judge in Arkansas to face a pension fund's claims the retailer defrauded shareholders by concealing corruption tied to bribes allegedly paid by officials of its Mexican unit. U.S. District Judge Susan Hickey in Fayetteville rejected Wal-Mart's bid to throw out the Michigan-based fund's lawsuit accusing it of making misleading statements to regulators about claims it paid bribes to facilitate Mexican real estate deals. Wal-Mart said it's spent $439 million since 2012 in connection with investigations into allegations that employees paid bribes in Mexico, China, India and Brazil.

A federal judge has rejected the settlement of a lawsuit challenging longtime Abercrombie & Fitch CEO Michael Jeffries' pay, saying it offered little benefit to shareholders despite serious allegations of wrongdoing. The Aug. 29 settlement was meant to resolve claims that Abercrombie should not have awarded Jeffries more than $140 million since 2007 and let him rack up heavy travel expenses amid persistent sales declines and an underperforming stock relative to other clothing chains'.

eBay plans to spin of its PayPal mobile payments unit into a separate publicly traded company. The online auction site revealed the move in an announcement Tuesday, as reported by The New York Times. The business split, which places both eBay and PayPal on the path activist investor Carl Icahn has been fighting for, will see both reformed as separate publicly traded companies in the second half of 2015.

On Monday, Wal-Mart delivered its answer in a New Jersey federal court to "30 Rock" actor Tracy Morgan's lawsuit arising from a six-car accident on the New Jersey Turnpike. Among nine affirmative defenses, Wal-Mart says that injuries "were caused, in whole or in part, by plaintiffs' failure to properly wear an appropriate available seatbelt restraint device." Morgan was among several people injured who are now suing Wal-Mart for negligence. In particular, their lawsuit filed in July questions whether Wal-Mart driver Kevin Roper was fatigued at the time of the crash. 

They compete tooth and nail to draw customers to their Midtown flagship stores, but Macy's and J.C. Penney are teaming up to block the thievery of organized crooks. The rivals have joined more than 100 companies and the NYPD to form an alliance that will be known as the Metropolitan Organized Retail Crime Alliance. Its objective is to improve retail stores’ security efforts by sharing intelligence on crews of bandits, scams and ripoffs. Target, Home Depot and Rite Aid have also signed up for the crime-busting venture. Computer giant Apple is poised to jump onboard soon, sources said.

A class-action settlement RadioShack reached with consumers that offered them $10 vouchers as compensation for printing their credit and debit card expiration dates on receipts has reportedly been overturned by the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago. According to Reuters, a panel of three federal judges said the total $1 million settlement is too small considering the amount of legal fees that must be paid. The judges also said that the possibility of RadioShack going bankrupt, which would prevent plaintiffs from collecting anything, may have hastened them into accepting an unfair settlement while the company is open. 

New York might have failed in its efforts to tax sugary sodas, but that didn't keep retail giant Wal-Mart from trying to tax it anyway. This week, New York Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman announced that the state reached a settlement with Wal-Mart Stores Inc. over false advertising claims. The settlement followed an investigation into claims that Wal-Mart advertised a sale on Coca-Cola soft drinks but actually charged customers across New York State more than the advertised sale price.

The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) announced Wednesday that Meijer, Inc. has agreed to pay a $2 million civil penalty for knowingly selling 12 different recalled products. According to the CPSC, Meijer distributed the products through a system operated with a third-party contractor. The CPSC says that Meijer received information about the recalls, but failed to take action to prevent the distribution of the recalled products. As a result, approximately 1,700 units of the recalled items were resold to consumers between April 2010 and April 2011.

Nike announced Wednesday that it would be suspending its contract with Minnesota Vikings running back Adrian Peterson in light of his recent child abuse charges. "Nike in no way condones child abuse or domestic violence of any kind and has shared our concerns with the NFL," a press representative for the company said. Also, Target confirmed that stores were pulling Peterson merchandise from shelves on Wednesday, as well as on the retailer's website. A spokesperson said the decision was made taking into account the feedback it had been hearing from guests.