Hunton Retail Law Resource

The post-COVID real estate market has seen a surge in luxury gyms and fitness spaces.  Members are willing to shell out several hundred dollars a month for memberships at popular high-end fitness chains. These modern luxury gyms offer more than just workout spaces.  Many offer holistic lifestyle services such as spas, hair salons, social amenities, co-working spaces, and daycare. These luxury gyms are gaining larger footprints and emerging as a unique retail asset.

The results are in: attorneys are filing more employment law cases in court.  Indeed, year-end reporting from legal databases like LexMachina confirm that the pace of filing new employment discrimination cases reached its highest level in 2025, surpassing 20,000 new filings nationwide.  Though overtime and minimum wage lawsuits under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) have continued to decline since 2015, discrimination cases under laws like Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Americans with Disabilities Act are on the rise.

For years, the cost to mint a penny has exceeded its face value. In February 2025, President Trump instructed the U.S. Mint to cease penny production, calling the practice “wasteful” considering its cost. In May, the U.S. Mint confirmed that it placed its last order of pennies, which were minted in June. Although pennies remained in circulation, the Federal Reserve then began ceasing mechanisms to distribute pennies to banks, resulting in widespread shortages across the country. By November, 109 of the Federal Reserve’s 165 currency distribution locations no longer distributed pennies. The penny’s swift cancellation and sudden shortage came without substantive guidance to businesses and banks on how to handle transactions moving forward. Although limited guidance has since been issued, stakeholders remain left with uncertainty and ambiguity about how to comply with the laws amidst the shortage. The penny shortage poses several legal challenges for businesses and banks, who should stay abreast of these issues as the shortage persists.

On February 26, 2026, the California Air Resources Board (CARB) voted to adopt staff’s proposed initial implementing regulations for California’s climate emissions disclosure and climate‑related financial risk reporting statutes—Senate Bill 253 and Senate Bill 261—both enacted in 2023.

On Feb. 23, 2026, New York Governor Kathy Hochul announced that the New York Department of Financial Services (“NYDFS”) had published proposed rules implementing the state’s Buy Now, Pay Later (“BNPL”) law.  The proposal would establish the nation’s first comprehensive regulatory framework for the rapidly growing pay-over-time consumer market niche. 

In 2025, California, Massachusetts, New York, and Washington advanced fashion accountability legislation targeting supply chain due diligence and environmental disclosures from major fashion companies. Heading into the 2026 legislative session, most of these bills have lost momentum: California and Washington’s measures are now inactive, Massachusetts’ proposal remains in study with limited prospects, and only New York’s bill is still under committee review. While each state’s legislative process varies, the window for action on these bills in 2026 has largely closed. Businesses should continue to track these developments, as similar proposals could reemerge in 2027.

M&A activity was strong in 2025, marking the second-best year on record for both global and North American markets. Technology, industrials, finance, and healthcare remained at the forefront, with retail and consumer products sectors also seeing a lot of movement. On a full-year basis, total deal value in retail, consumer products, and hospitality reached its highest level since the pandemic-era peak in 2021.

On February 20, 2026, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the International Emergency Economic Powers Act ("IEEPA") does not authorize the President to impose tariffs. In Learning Resources, Inc. v. Trump, the Court invalidated tariffs imposed under IEEPA in connection with the Administration’s drug‑trafficking and "reciprocal" trade actions. The Supreme Court concluded that IEEPA’s grant of authority to "regulate … importation" does not include the power to impose tariffs. Tariffs are taxes, and the Constitution assigns taxing authority to Congress. When Congress intends to delegate tariff authority, it does so explicitly and with defined limits—features absent from IEEPA.

We previously reported that in December 2025, a food and beverage industry coalition challenged a Texas law requiring food and beverage manufacturers doing business in the state to affix warning labels on products containing any of 44 specific artificial colors, chemicals, and additives.

Hunton’s 2025 Retail Industry Year in Review offers an in-depth examination of key challenges and developments that impacted retailers last year, as well as insights into what the industry can expect in 2026. With topics that include agentic AI, trends in privacy laws, tariff duty refunds, algorithmic pricing, food and beverage legal trends, retail M&A activity, and consumer data in bankruptcy, we hope this proves useful and insightful to you. We look forward to supporting you in the year ahead.