Coronavirus/COVID-19

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In the retail industry, staff shortages caused by COVID-19 exposure and positive cases can significantly disrupt business operations, particularly during this time of unprecedented turnover and resignations in the retail labor market.  During this latest surge in COVID-19 cases, retail employers should be aware of recent changes in federal, state, and local guidance related to COVID-19 isolation and quarantine requirements.
Continue Reading California Adopts New CDC Guidance Regarding Quarantine and Isolation Periods With Its Own Twists

With the busy holiday shopping season underway, retailers should remain vigilant in their efforts to protect consumers and themselves from the risks of selling potentially unsafe, ineffective or misbranded products in violation of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s federal pesticide law, the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide and Rodenticide Act.
Continue Reading Five Questions Retailers Should Ask Themselves When Selling Pesticide Products and Devices

In May of 2021, the CDC issued guidance that fully vaccinated individuals could stop wearing masks and observing social distancing in most indoor and outdoor settings.  However, in the following months, the delta variant of COVID-19 has presented a resurgence in cases across the country.  This uptick forced the CDC to reevaluate its guidance to again recommend that even vaccinated people wear masks in certain indoor public spaces, especially considering many of these COVID spikes are occurring in the least vaccinated areas of the United States.
Continue Reading Delta Directives: Retailers Consider Mask and Vaccine Mandates

The COVID-19 pandemic caused supply chain interruptions across industries, from toilet paper and cleaning supplies, to red meat.  Although most states have resumed close to “normal” capacity and operations, the nation still faces an historic and unprecedented lumber shortage.  As a result of this perfect storm, prices for lumber and other building materials have skyrocketed since the start of the pandemic, and have only just begun to fall, as the increasing supply struggles to catch up with still very high demand.
Continue Reading Pandemic Demand Causes Unprecedented Building Supply Shortage

Signed into law on December 27, 2020, the Trademark Modernization Act of 2020 (TMA) provides amendments to existing federal trademark law that will assist US retailers and other businesses with branding decisions. Congress passed the TMA as part of the COVID-19 relief and government-funding bill.
Continue Reading How Does the Trademark Modernization Act of 2020 Help You Protect Your Brand?

Commercial tenants who are unable to pay their rent as a result of COVID-19 shutdown and capacity-limit orders have, thus far, found little relief from courts, who have by and large rejected their common law defenses seeking a discharge of lease obligations. One recent Massachusetts case, however, sides with a commercial tenant, albeit under narrow circumstances, approving of the often-unsuccessful “frustration of purpose” defense.
Continue Reading Massachusetts Court: COVID-19 Closure Order Partially Discharges Commercial Rent Obligation Under “Frustration of Purpose” Doctrine