Legal

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. stepped up damage control on Tuesday as its shares sank for a second day and the reverberations continued from the retailer's admission that it was investigating allegations of bribery by its operations in Mexico.

On Saturday, The New York Times published an investigative article that reported executives of Wal-Mart de Mexico, the largest foreign subsidiary of Wal-Mart Stores Inc., may have engaged in “widespread bribery” to accelerate the company’s expansion in Mexico. After the article was published, Wal-Mart officials acknowledged the Bentonville, Ark.-based retailer is investigating possible violations of U.S. law that ban bribery in foreign countries. The Wall Street Journal reported Wal-Mart first disclosed the internal probe in a December filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. 

Under Armour notified employees last week about a data breach that may have exposed their names, Social Security numbers and salary information. Baltimore-based Under Armour told employees in an email message that an unencrypted thumb drive containing employee payroll information was lost in the U.S. mail on or about April 12 by its auditing firm, PricewaterhouseCoopers. The thumb drive was sent by mail in connection with a recent audit, the memo said. 

A Ventura, Calif. judge approved a settlement that forces CVS Caremark Corp. to pay $13.75 million to settle California claims that it illegally disposed of hazardous waste at California stores. CVS came under investigation in 2010 after allegations were made that the drugstore chain had mishandled medical, pharmaceutical and photographic waste at California stores over a seven-year period.

Apple Inc. and publishers Penguin and Macmillan have decided to fight U.S. government charges that they conspired to fix the prices of e-books, even as three other publishers agreed to a settlement aimed at lowering prices for consumers. The Justice Department accused Apple of colluding with five publishers as the Silicon Valley giant was launching its iPad in early 2010 and was seeking to break up Amazon's low-cost dominance in the digital book market.

U.S. District Judge Robert Blackburn has upheld a permanent injunction on a Colorado law that would have required out-of-state online retailers to report their in-state customers’ purchases to Colorado tax authorities and notify those customers of the resulting sales tax owed to the state.

Overstock.com announced on Monday it had received notification from the Securities and Exchange Commission's Salt Lake Regional Office that it has closed its 2009 investigation of Overstock.com and does not intend to recommend to the Commission any enforcement action against it. Overstock.com said it had become aware of the investigation in September 2009 when it received a subpoena following its disclosure of restatements of certain of its financial statements. 

Southern California designer jeans maker True Religion Apparel has won a $864 million court judgment against online Chinese counterfeiters, but actually getting that money will be a battle. The Vernon company, whose jeans can go for nearly $500, sued 282 websites originating from China and accused them of lifting company trademarks and peddling fake goods. The websites had names such as TrueReligion4Cheap.com and ForTrueReligionJeans.com. 

If you buy from an online retailer like Amazon or Overstock today will you be stung with sales tax? It's often hard to tell until you check out, and tomorrow may be even more confusing. The battle over internet sales taxes is far from over. 

In a showdown between sports merchandising giants, Nike alleged that Reebok illegally sold Tim Tebow shirts and other apparel soon after he was traded to the Jets last week, according to a complaint filed late Tuesday in federal court in Manhattan. “Despite not having any current right or license to produce new N.F.L. products featuring N.F.L. player identification (i.e., player name and number), Reebok is producing and selling Tim Tebow-identified New York Jets apparel products in order to capitalize on the public’s short-lived intense consumer appetite for such products, and to prevent Nike from doing so,” the complaint said.