Legal

Lowe's, one of the largest home improvement retailers in the U.S., has agreed to pay a penalty of $500,000 for the violation of rules related to minimizing exposure of lead dust during renovations. Lowe's has also agreed to implement a compliance program at its more than 1,700 stores. The U.S Justice Department and Environmental Protection Agency said Lowe's will implement a compliance program nationwide to ensure its contractors minimize lead dust from home renovation activities, as required by the Federal Lead Renovation, Repair and Painting Rule.

CVS, the country's second-largest pharmacy chain, has agreed to pay $20 million to settle charges that it misled investors and used improper accounting techniques to artificially boost its financial earnings, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission announced Tuesday. The charges stem from activities that occurred in the third and fourth quarters of 2009, regulators said. According to the SEC, CVS conducted a $1.5 billion bond offering in 2009, but didn't tell investors that it had recently lost "significant" Medicare Part D and contract revenues in its pharmacy benefits business segment. 

A lawsuit accusing lululemon athletica of defrauding shareholders by hiding defects in some yoga pants that led to a costly recall and caused the retailer's stock price to fall should be dismissed, a U.S. judge said. Investors accused lululemon of failing to disclose how its black Luon yoga pants were too sheer, falsely touting its quality control, covering up an inability to address shortfalls, using deep discounts to boost market share, and concealing plans to replace its then-chief executive, Christine Day. The case arose after shoppers found that pants containing lululemon's proprietary Luon fabric were see-through when worn.

The National Retail Federation (NRF) this week urged Congress to pass the bipartisan Save American Workers Act, which would change the Affordable Care Act's definition of full-time employment from 30 hours per week to 40 hours. The NRF sent a letter to the House saying all votes related to the bill would be considered key votes for the association's annual scorecard. "NRF greatly appreciates the bipartisan support for changes to the Affordable Care Act's definition of full-time work for benefit eligibility," NRF Senior Vice President for Government Relations David French wrote. "It is, after all, a common sense approach."

Mary Kay is taking steps to find out the real names of unauthorized sellers of cosmetics and skin care products on eBay. Addison, Texas-based May Kay Inc. is asking a Texas District Court for the authority to depose representatives of eBay Inc. with the purpose of finding out the identities of sellers that claim to sell genuine Mary Kay products. In the court filing, the company said it doesn't authorize the sale of any of its products on eBay or the use of its trademarks on eBay.

Brookstone, the struggling retailer known for its consumer gadgets, massage chairs and eclectic home furnishings, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection Thursday, with plans to sell itself to the owner of the Spencer's retail chain for about $147 million. The filing caps a challenging period for Brookstone, which has laid off workers and closed stores amid a decline in sales. The company, which is privately held and based in Merrimack, N.H., said it lost $18 million in the 13 weeks that ended Sept. 28, compared with a loss of $12 million in the period a year earlier. 

A recent ruling against Cole Haan from the Federal Trade Commission puts marketers on notice that pinned content on Pinterest featuring a brand's product and generated via a contest must be clearly marked as a product endorsement. The FTC hasn't previously explicitly addressed whether a pin on Pinterest constitutes an endorsement, but the agency asserted in a recent letter that the brand created a deceptive situation because consumers didn't realize others had received an incentive for pinning the brand's products to Pinterest. 

May Kay Inc. is asking a court for the authority to depose eBay representatives in order to learn the identities of sellers that claim to sell genuine Mary Kay products, according to the Dallas News. The firm has been trying to get its cosmetics off of eBay since at least as far back as 2003 when EcommerceBytes wrote about a crackdown to prevent consultants from selling on eBay. A former consultant cited the first sale doctrine in her defense when she faced

Wal-Mart this week sued Visa Inc for $5 billion, accusing the credit and debit card network of excessively high card swipe fees, several months after the retailer opted out of a class-action settlement between merchants and Visa and MasterCard. Visa declined to comment on the suit, filed Tuesday in the

Specialty retailer Brookstone is preparing to file for bankruptcy as early as Sunday with a plan in place to be bought by another specialty retailer, The Wall Street Journal reported, citing people familiar with the matter. Spencer Spirit Holdings Inc., which owns the retail chain Spencer's and costume retailer Spirit, has been in discussions with Brookstone for weeks and both retailers are looking to finalize sale paperwork over the weekend leading up to a bankruptcy filing, the report said.