Legislative, Regulatory & Legal

Staples and Office Depot have agreed to a Federal Trade Commission decision to extend the review period for a possible $6.3 billion merger of the two companies.

The companies announced Monday that the FTC has agreed to issue its decision regarding this transaction by Dec. 8.

The National Retail Federation and the Retail Industry Leaders Association are aligned with the nation’s top law enforcement agency in an effort to ensure consumers have access to the most secure payment methods.

The FBI has released an official advisory warning consumers that EMV-compliant cards are still vulnerable to fraud and PIN authentication is the best means to prevent personal data theft. According to the FBI. EMV cards can still be counterfeited with stolen card data obtained on the black market.

On the heels of lackluster quarterly sales, job cuts and an overcharging scandal, Whole Foods Market is getting another round of bad publicity, and this time it’s about prison labor.

The retailer will stop selling food produced under a prison labor program. Specifically, it said it will stop selling tilapia sourced from Quixotic Farming and cheese distributed by Haystack Mountain Goat Dairy. Both companies partner with Colorado Correctional Industries (CCI), a division of Colorado's Department of Corrections.

On the heels of lackluster quarterly sales, job cuts and an overcharging scandal, Whole Foods is getting another round of bad publicity, and this time it’s about prison labor.

The retailer announced that it will stop offering products made by prisoners next year. The company specifically said it will stop selling tilapia sourced from Quixotic Farming and cheese distributed by Haystack Mountain Goat Dairy, two private companies that partner with Colorado Correctional Industries (CCI), a division of Colorado's Department of Corrections.

In a not unanticipated move, American Apparel filed for bankruptcy protection in Delaware on Monday. But the company said its stores will not be affected by the filing, and no store closings or layoffs were announced.

The Los Angeles-based retailer, which has not reported a profit since 2009, has been struggling under the weight of big debts sluggish sales and a protracted — and costly — legal battle with its founder and ousted CEO, the controversial Dov Charney.

Boston-based sporting goods retailer City Sports has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection and plans to liquidate at least a quarter of its stores.

According to the Wall Street Journal, City Sports said it has a deal with liquidators Tiger Capital Group to hold going-out-of-business sales at eight of the company’s 26 stores, which are scattered throughout the Northeast from Massachusetts to Washington, D.C.

The highly anticipated EMV deadline of Oct. 1 has come and gone, leaving many retailers and payment solutions providers to ponder what’s next? As of Oct. 1, 2015, any U.S. retailer that does not have the necessary POS hardware, software, and operational and network protocols in place to process an EMV-compliant chip card transaction faces a shift in fraud liability.

The highly anticipated EMV deadline of October 1 has come and gone, leaving many retailers and payment solutions providers to ponder what’s next?

As of Oct. 1, 2015, any U.S. retailer that does not have the necessary POS hardware, software, and operational and network protocols in place to process an EMV-compliant chip card transaction faces a shift in fraud liability.

Despite all the commotion surrounding the Oct. 1 deadline for U.S. retailers to accept EMV-compliant payment cards, the National Retail Federation (NRF) expects no drastic shifts to occur.

In the two months since the Department of Labor announced its proposed new overtime standards, much has been written about what it may mean for employers big and small.