Legal

We used to call it shoplifting, but these days the foot soldiers of retail crime rings are known as boosters. Police even have an acronym for these operations: ORC, which stands for Organized Retail Crime. Police say big retail stores, from Walgreens to J.C. Penny, are getting hit by highly sophisticated shoplifting networks that steal and resell everything from underwear to razors to milk. According to the National Retail Federation, theft can amount to annual losses as high as a $37 billion for retail businesses.

Terry Lundgren, CEO of Macy’s, took the stand on Monday to testify in the trial of two Macy's lawsuits regarding the deal between J.C. Penney and Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia Inc. The long-awaited trial began last Wednesday in New York Supreme Court. Testifying, Lundgren said he was shocked when Martha Stewart, who at the time he considered a friend, called to tell him about her arrangement with J.C. Penney. "I was completely shocked and blown away," Lundgren said. "I was literally sick to my stomach."

The NAACP and the community organization group TakeAction Minnesota accused Target Corp. of unfair hiring practices in 10 formal complaints filed with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). The NAACP and the community group allege the retailer's hiring practices discriminate against applicants with criminal records. In a news conference in Minneapolis, the groups accused Target of denying people with criminal records job interviews, even when the alleged crime was old, expunged or irrelevant to the prospective job. 

A California court has handed eBay a significant victory in a legal dispute concerning the e-commerce giant's right to suspend the accounts of sellers who it believes misrepresent merchandise on their stores and run afoul of the company's terms of service. In late January, the California Court of Appeal for the Fourth Appellate District upheld an earlier series of rulings exonerating eBay for alleged antitrust violations in barring offending merchants from selling on the marketplace.

J.C. Penney and Macy's are going head-to-head at the New York Supreme Court over whether Martha Stewart's contract with Macy's prevents J.C. Penney from selling Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia products in certain categories. Opening arguments in the case began yesterday.

Amazon.com used to be against collecting taxes on sales to consumers in states where it doesn't have a physical presence. In November, it switched sides. And when the Marketplace Fairness Act was introduced in the House and Senate last week, Amazon was listed among its supporters. So what happened? Lots. Amazon can expect to benefit from the collection of online sales taxes in at least three ways.

A federal judge in Nashville, Tenn. said Wednesday that Wal-Mart Stores’ female employees in Tennessee and four other southern states cannot pursue sex-discrimination claims against the retailer through a class-action lawsuit. The class action is being denied because it was filed too late.

The apparent advantage online retailers have over their brick-and-mortar counterparts may soon be gone now that new legislation seeking to enforce the collection of sales tax for all retailers has been introduced. Introduced by Senators Mike Enzi...

One of the world's leading luxury brands has filed a suit against one of the world's largest discount retailers over allegedly false claims on engagement rings. Tiffany & Co. is suing Costco Wholesale Corp. to find out how many of the supposedly counterfeit rings the big-box retailer sold, the source of the rings and, of course, for monetary damages. This suit could have the same result of a similar 2004 charge that Tiffany leveled against eBay. In that case the court said it was Tiffany's responsibility to figure out the source of the counterfeit jewelry, not eBay's.

Retailers in most states now have the option to charge a fee to consumers who pay with a credit card. The new "checkout fee," in effect since Jan. 27, is the result of a multibillion dollar settlement announced last summer between credit card issuers and millions of merchants. Visa, MasterCard and nine major banks agreed to pay $7.25 billion to settle charges that they were fixing credit card processing fees. Credit card issuers agreed as part of the deal to reduce the "swipe fees" that merchants pay to issuers when cards are used, but only for eight months.