Legislative, Regulatory & Legal

New York City -- The women who were part of the large class action lawsuit against Wal-Mart Stores have been given until Oct. 28 to file individual lawsuits against the company, a U.S. judge ruled, Reuters reported.

The women, who claim the retailer denied them pay raises and promotions because of gender bias, are regrouping after the U.S. Supreme Court dismantled a class of up to 1.5 million current and former Wal-Mart workers in June.

Seattle -- Starbucks Corp. agreed to pay nearly $1.6 million to cafe managers and their lawyers to settle a dispute concerning overtime pay, the Associated Press reported.

The lawsuit was filed in 2009 in U.S. District Court in South Florida by a former Starbucks employee and covered roughly 550 managers.

New York City -- A privacy ruling from California’s highest court which found that the practice of asking credit card customers for ZIP codes constituted a violation of state consumer privacy statutes could have substantial implications for retailers, warns Mac Nadel, retail/wholesale, food & beverage industry practice leader for Marsh Inc.

By Mac Nadel, [email protected]

New York City -- Howard Schultz, CEO of Starbucks, cancelled a speech he was to give Friday at The Global Leadership Summit, an annual leadership summit organized by megachurch Willow Creek Community Church, South Barrington, Ill., after an online petition condemned the congregation as anti-gay. The church denies the charges.

The annual event draws tens of thousands of viewers via satellite. Past speakers have included former GE's Jack Welch former president Bill Clinton.

Woodland Hills, Calif. -- Great American Group said Thursday it has been retained to manage the going-out-of-business sale of all Pierre Deux stores, a French furnishing retailer that operated across 13 states.

Pierre Deux ceased business operations and filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy protection on June 23.

“The trustee has charged us with selling the company’s inventory in all of the stores,” said Scott Carpenter, executive VP and the head of the Retail Services Division for Great American Group.

YONKERS, N.Y. — Consumer Reports announced that its Index, which measures overall consumer sentiment, fell to its lowest level since December 2009 and registered its sharpest drop in two years, as recent events in Washington about the debt ceiling debate fixed attention on the weak economy.

San Francisco -- Visa announced Tuesday that it plans to accelerate the migration to EMV contact and contactless chip technology in the United States.

The adoption of dual-interface chip technology will help prepare the U.S. payment infrastructure for the arrival of NFC-based mobile payments by building the necessary infrastructure to accept and process chip transactions that support either a signature or PIN at the point of sale.