Legal

A pair of cases involving multiple sellers suing over PayPal's policy of holding funds continue to linger in a California court, the march toward settlement slowed by dubious attorney conduct, mutual assertions of negotiating in bad faith from the litigants, and the emergence of new plaintiffs seeking to intervene in the actions. The class-action cases — Fernando vs. eBay and Zepeda vs. PayPal — both date to 2010, each involving a group of sellers who brought various allegations against the payment provider and its parent company for holding sellers’ funds for up to 180 days or longer.

The National Retail Federation (NRF) yesterday filed an appeal of an antitrust lawsuit settlement covering credit card swipe fees, asking the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to overturn a lower court's ruling. NRF Senior Vice President and General Counsel Mallory Duncan issued the following statement after the notice to appeal was filed: "NRF is filing the appeal to overturn the flawed credit card swipe fee settlement. The settlement does nothing to reform the price-fixing payments system that's let credit card swipe fees skyrocket over the past decade and nothing to keep them from continuing to soar in the future."

Department store Macy's and Martha Stewart Living reached an agreement announced Thursday to settle a legal dispute regarding product branding. "Macy's has resolved its breach-of-contract lawsuit against Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia. We are pleased to be able to put this matter behind us," Macy's said in a statement. The terms of the settlement are confidential and won't be disclosed, according to a press release.

In the case of New York jewelry versus Swiss watches (Swatch), a Dutch arbitration court has ruled in favor of the Swiss, ordering Tiffany to pay nearly half a billion dollars in damages to Swatch, the companies announced Sunday afternoon. As a result of the punitive damages, Tiffany slashed its full-year fiscal 2013 outlook. The Netherlands Arbitration Institute ruled that Tiffany must pay Swatch $449 million as a result of a contractual dispute that arose as a result of a joint venture the two companies entered in 2007. 

Costco Wholesale has tentatively agreed to pay $8 million and change its promotion procedures to settle a long-running lawsuit that alleges it failed to give female employees an equal shot at management jobs. In the proposed settlement, the Issaquah, Wash.-based retailer agreed to establish an $8 million fund to compensate women in the lawsuit, which received class-action status in 2007. It also will overhaul its promotion procedures and tools. The company will also create a posting process for assistant general manager promotions, and a system to register interest in promotions to general manager roles.

Loehmann's, the 92-year-old discount clothing chain, has filed for bankruptcy protection for a third time and said it's prepared to sell its assets to a group of liquidators. The Chapter 11 filing late on Sunday makes the Bronx, New York-based company the latest retailer selling designer wear at steep discounts to succumb to competition from rival chains, joining onetime competitors such as Daffy's, Filene's Basement and Syms. According to filings in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Manhattan, Loehmann's Holdings Inc. tried last month to sell its businesses as a going concern.

Type GanderMountainCatalog.com into a web browser. You get Cabela's homepage: Cabelas.com. Same for GanderCatalog.com. That might be clever, but it's also illegal, according to St. Paul, Minn.-based Gander Mountain, which on Friday sued Nebraska-based Cabela's, its larger competitor in the outdoors retail sector, for illegal cybersquatting. In the lawsuit, filed in federal court in Minneapolis, Gander accuses Cabela's of violating federal and state statutes as well as common law. Among the allegations, Gander says Cabela's is in violation of the federal Anticybersquatting Consumer Protection Act, trademark infringement and trademark dilution.

The NRF issued the following statement from its Senior Vice President and General Counsel Mallory Duncan in response to U.S. District Court Judge John Gleeson's approval of an antitrust lawsuit over credit card swipe fees. "We're very disappointed that this deeply flawed settlement has been approved. It's not supported by the retail industry and would do nothing to reduce swipe fees or keep them from rising in the future. The settlement permanently ties the hands of thousands of businesses who wanted nothing to do with this misguided case, and a decision to approve it violates established law and common sense."

Bad news for Barnes & Noble this Christmas: the SEC thinks the bookseller's accounting practices may have been naughty. In Barnes & Noble's quarterly report filed last Thursday, the company noted that the SEC "notified the Company that it had commenced an investigation into: (1) the Company's restatement of earnings announced on July 29, 2013, and (2) a separate matter related to a former non-executive employee's allegation that the Company improperly allocated certain Information Technology expenses between its NOOK and Retail segments for purposes of segment reporting." Lands’ End announced that it's cooperating with the SEC on this matter. 

Under Armour is working to stretch the boundaries of a sportswear maker by branching into tech gadgets and lifestyle accessories. But there are limitations on the Baltimore company's innovations when other companies beat them to the patent. One of Under Armour's newest products became a recent victim of a patent infringement lawsuit