Legal

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. 

Apple and Amazon.com customers were notified on Tuesday of opportunities to get money back as a result of two legal settlements with the government. Both cases revolved around Apple. Apple emailed customers eligible for a refund related to a federal complaint that children could make purchases in iPhone or iPad apps without adequate parental consent. In January, Apple reached an agreement with the Federal Trade Commission to pay at least $32.5 million in refunds. In another email, Amazon notified customers about store credit they received for e-book purchases, a result of a settlement reached with five major book publishers. 

The U.S. Supreme Court hears arguments Tuesday in the latest challenge to the Obama health care overhaul. This time the issue is whether for-profit corporations, citing religious objections, may refuse to provide some, or potentially all, contraceptive services in health plans offered to employees. It's a case that touches lots of hot-button issues. In enacting the ACA, Congress required large employers to provide basic preventive care for employees. That turned out to include all 20 contraceptive methods approved by the Food and Drug Administration. Under the law, religious nonprofits were exempted from this requirement, but for-profit corporations were not.

The National Retail Federation (NRF) expressed disappointment in a court decision that will keep the Federal Reserve's cap on debit card swipe fees at 21 cents rather than reducing it to a lower level. "NRF is disappointed and remains confident that the Federal Reserve erred when it set the swipe fee cap far higher than intended by Congress," NRF Senior Vice President and General Counsel Mallory Duncan said. "The Fed ignored congressional intent and worked to shield debit card companies and big banks. A self-described victory for the banks usually results in higher costs for consumers."

KlearGear, an online retailer that gained notoriety after charging a married couple $3,500 for writing a bad review, failed to appear in court to defend itself on allegations that it violated fair credit laws. As a result, a federal judge found the retailer had "defaulted." That order paves the way for the couple to ask the judge to order KlearGear to pay damages. Their lawyer, Scott Michelman of the advocacy group Public Citizen, says he intends to do so. The default finding marks the latest chapter in a saga that began in 2008.

Target has been sued by Swatch Group, which accused the second-largest U.S. discount retailer of illegally selling watches that copy its own. In a lawsuit made public on Monday in U.S. District Court in Manhattan, Swatch, which is known for its plastic namesake watches, accused Target of infringing its designs for "zebra" and "multicolor" watches. Swatch said the quality of Target's watches is "inferior" to its own, and that their continued sale is likely to confuse shoppers and damage the Swiss company's sales.