Legislative, Regulatory & Legal

Arlington, Va. – Cooperation among all public- and private-sector stakeholders in the retail industry is needed to ensure cyber security in the face of high-profile retail hacking attacks like the one recently uncovered at Home Depot, according to the Retail Industry Leaders Association (RILA). Sandy Kennedy, president of RILA, released a public statement on the importance of continuing to improve the security of debit and credit cards.

Chesapeake, Va. -- Dollar Tree Inc. and Family Dollar Stores Inc. announced, as expected, they have received a second request for information from the U.S. Federal Trade Commission in connection with Dollar Tree's pending $8.5 billion deal to acquire Family Dollar.

New York -- Panera Bread would like its customers to leave their guns at home. The bakery-cafe chain joined a handful of other high-profile retailers, including Starbucks, Chipotle, and Target, to make the request.  

New York -- California is on track to become the first state in the United States to impose a statewide ban on single-use plastic bags. Lawmakers passed the bill last week, and California governor Jerry Brown on Thursday said he would probably sign it into law.  

The legislation would ban single-use plastic bags from supermarkets and drug stores in 2015, and from convenience and liquor stores in 2016. The bill would allow stores to charge 10 cents for paper or reusable bags.

Atlanta - Several Home Depot customers filed a class-action lawsuit on Thursday, Sept.4 in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia, Atlanta Division. The suit alleges that Home Depot failed to meet its legal obligation to protect their credit card and personal information and failed to timely warn them that their information had been stolen or compromised.

Jacksonville, Fla. - Body Central Corp. is enacting a one-for-10 reverse stock split of its common stock. Each 10 shares of common stock will be converted into one share of common stock.

The number of outstanding common shares will be reduced from approximately 17.2 million to approximately 1.72 million. The number of authorized shares and the par value per share will remain unchanged.

Matthews, N.C. — Family Dollar Stores on Friday rejected the sweetened, $9.1 billion take-over bid made by Dollar General on Sept.

Family Dollar has rejected the revised proposal made by Dollar General on Sept. 2 on the basis of antitrust regulatory considerations. The Dollar General offer may be financially superior, the dollar store operator noted, but it's not likely to pass muster with the Federal Trade Commission.
 

Seattle – The board of directors of Nordstrom Inc. has authorized a repurchase program of up to $1 billion of the company’s outstanding common stock, through March 1, 2016. Nordstrom intends to fund the repurchase program from existing cash on hand.

San Francisco -- Costco Wholesale Corp. agreed to pay a $335,000 in penalties federal Clean Air Act violations, according to a settlement announced Wednesday by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and U.S. Department of Justice. In addition, the retailer will fix refrigerant leaks and make other improvements at 274 of its stores, which EPA estimates will cost about $2 million over the next three years.