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Online Discount Pricing Policies Face Increasing Scrutiny
Consumers, particularly online shoppers, are constantly looking for a discount. Given that “nobody pays retail anymore,” online retailers are facing increased challenges when comparing their own discounted prices to original or suggested retail prices. As a result, retailers are being accused with greater frequency of exaggerating discounts in comparison to inflated original prices. Publications such as the New York Times have recently highlighted this phenomenon, which can create a false impression that consumers are getting significant savings. See, “It's Discounted, but Is it a Deal? How List Prices Lost Their Meaning,” New York Times (March 6, 2016). A Times survey concluded that many promoted products were not truly being offered at the advertised list price. Those findings are consistent with a number of lawsuits filed against leading online and brick-and-mortar retailers which challenge such practices.
Retail purchasing and pricing practices have changed dramatically with the Internet, but the law has not always kept pace. In the click of an Enter button, consumers now have the ability to use search engines to scan prices advertised by literally hundreds of online retailers. Yet, when looking for guidance about the legal requirements for establishing and comparing to a suggested retail price, retailers are forced to rely on 50-year old guidelines and a patchwork of similarly outdated and confusing state pricing laws. These requirements, while well meaning, were drafted prior to the existence of the virtual marketplace in which retailers now compete, and consumers now shop. State regulators and class action lawyers are now recognizing the gap between statutory requirements and the current marketplace, and are challenging retailers' pricing practices that they believe violate the governing law.
The DOJ's Corporate Enforcement Policy: One Year Later
The DOJ's Criminal Division issued three declinations since the issuance of the revised CEP a year ago. Review of these cases gives insight into DOJ's implementation of the new policy in practice.
The DOJ's New Parameters for Evaluating Corporate Compliance Programs
The parameters set forth in the DOJ's memorandum have implications not only for the government's evaluation of compliance programs in the context of criminal charging decisions, but also for how defense counsel structure their conference-room advocacy seeking declinations or lesser sanctions in both criminal and civil investigations.
Use of Deferred Prosecution Agreements In White Collar Investigations
This article discusses the practical and policy reasons for the use of DPAs and NPAs in white-collar criminal investigations, and considers the NDAA's new reporting provision and its relationship with other efforts to enhance transparency in DOJ decision-making.
A Lawyer's System for Active Reading
Active reading comprises many daily tasks lawyers engage in, including highlighting, annotating, note taking, comparing and searching texts. It demands more than flipping or turning pages.
Bankruptcy Sales: Finding a Diamond In the Rough
There is no efficient market for the sale of bankruptcy assets. Inefficient markets yield a transactional drag, potentially dampening the ability of debtors and trustees to maximize value for creditors. This article identifies ways in which investors may more easily discover bankruptcy asset sales.