Legislative, Regulatory & Legal

Framingham, Mass. – The office supply retail vertical may be in for more consolidation. According to the Wall Street Journal, Staples Inc. and Office Depot Inc. are in the “advanced stages” of negotiations to combine the two biggest U.S. office supply chains.

Wage and hour issues are ever present in the retail industry. Retailers are under constant pressure to control expenses, the largest component of which is labor. In 2015, local, state and federal officials are poised to take actions that will likely increase the cost of labor for retailers. Retailers must remain alert for these coming changes and begin planning for their impact long before their effective dates.

Citing the cost and complexity associated the rollout of the Affordable Care Act, National Retail Federation affirmed its opposition to the health care law in a sharply worded letter to top elected officials.

Fort Worth, Texas – Hedge fund Standard General LP is reportedly arranging to act as the lead “stalking horse” bidder for troubled electronics retailer RadioShack Corp. According to the Wall Street Journal, Standard General, which is RadioShack’s largest shareholder and has already provided financing that allowed RadioShack to operate through 2014, is currently negotiating a stalking horse deal with the company.

Los Angeles - The Court of Paris has rejected every claim asserted by Gucci in a six-year trademark suit filed against Guess Inc., finding no trademark infringement, no counterfeiting, and no unfair competition. The court also completely denied Gucci’s request for $62.4 million in damages and, instead, Gucci was ordered by the court to pay Guess $34,000.

The court also invalidated three of Gucci’s “G” community and international trademarks, meaning Gucci cannot claim exclusive use to those marks any longer.

Matthews, N.C. – Howard Levine, CEO of Family Dollar Stores Inc., reportedly plans to sell between one and two million shares of company stock in the next 10 days. According to the Charlotte Business Journal, Levine filed his intention to make the sale with SEC.

Hangzhou, China – The Chinese regulatory agency State Administration for Industry and Commerce (SAIC) has reportedly criticized Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. for not making enough effort to prevent the sale of counterfeit items on its e-commerce platform. According to the Wall Street Journal, the SAIC issued a report starting Alibaba offers insufficient product information and does not use an effective system to rank sellers.

The Retail Industry Leaders Association (RILA) says retailers support a strong pre-emptive federal data breach law that allows for reasonable and clear notice triggered by potential customer harm.

In testimony this week before Congress, Brian Dodge, executive VP at RILA, will focus on retailers’ priority of supporting a strong preemptive federal data breach law that allows for reasonable and clear notice triggered by potential customer harm.