In today’s ecommerce-driven economy, brand owners face a relentless challenge: unauthorized resellers who flood online marketplaces with products that undermine brand value, confuse consumers and compromise quality standards. These resellers may operate in gray areas...
Content By Kyle D. Stroup
L.A.B. Golf and Lululemon’s Costco Membership May Be Expired: How Costco is Highlighting Challenges Faced by Brands
Costco Wholesale, known for its sales model which provides a wide array of products at significant discounts to its members, is facing allegations from Lululemon and L.A.B. Golf regarding unauthorized sales and product imitations. Lululemon, a premium athletic apparel...
Robinson-Patman Liability: Diminished But Not Dead
After decades of dormancy, the Robinson-Patman Act (RPA), returned to the forefront of antitrust enforcement in early 2025—only to stumble swiftly. The RPA is an antitrust law that, at its core, prevents price discrimination among buyers that could harm competition....
Walmart Permits Amazon’s Multi-Channel Fulfillment Services: Implications for Brands
Walmart recently updated its shipping and fulfillment policies to permit its third-party merchants to use Amazon’s Multi-Channel Fulfillment (“MCF”) when fulfilling orders placed through Walmart’s marketplace. With this critical change, Walmart is enabling sellers to...
TikTok on the Clock: Brands Should Begin Monitoring TikTok for Unauthorized Resellers
The ever-growing ecommerce market continues to present new opportunities for brands. But with those new opportunities comes additional challenges in preventing the unauthorized resale of products online. In the past, unauthorized resellers relied heavily on ecommerce...
Amazon’s “Buy Box” Legally Boxes Out the Competition
On March 20, 2025, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed a district court’s order to dismiss a consumer antitrust lawsuit filed against Amazon. In the lawsuit styled Hogan v. Amazon.com, Inc., the consumer-plaintiffs alleged that Amazon forced third-party...
The Hidden Impact of Tariffs: Why Brands Must Strengthen Online Enforcement Efforts
In today’s volatile global trade environment, tariffs have become a double-edged sword for brands. Intended to protect domestic industries, tariffs often lead to unintended consequences that pose significant challenges for brand owners—especially in the online...
The City of Cleveland and State of Ohio Fight to Enforce the Modell Law and Block the Browns’ Move to Brook Park
This week, the City of Cleveland (the City) and the State of Ohio (the State) took several key actions in the battle to prevent the Cleveland Browns from relocating to a domed facility in Brook Park, Ohio. On January 14, 2025, the City filed a lawsuit in the Cuyahoga...
Breach of Trust? Baker Mayfield Sues Father in $12 Million Business Dispute
On November 22, 2024, NFL star Baker Mayfield, his wife Emily Mayfield, and their business entity Team BRM, LLC (collectively, “Plaintiffs”), filed a lawsuit in the United States District Court, Western District of Texas, against several businesses owned or operated...
We All Scream for Ice Cream: DMCA Exemption Enables Repairs of McDonald’s Ice Cream Machines
A new exemption to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) allows McDonald’s employees, franchise owners, and others to fix McDonald’s often out-of-order ice cream machines. Prior to this exemption, most McDonald’s ice cream machines could be fixed only by the...