Hunton Retail Law Resource

Join us for a timely discussion on "surveillance pricing" — one of the most active legislative and regulatory issues facing retailers today. Federal and state legislators and regulators, including the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), have turned their attention to how companies use consumer data to personalize prices. Proposed and enacted rules frequently sweep in retail pricing activity far beyond the dynamic pricing models associated with rideshare and airline platforms, potentially capturing routine retail practices such as loyalty program discounts, targeted promotions, personalized offers, and segmented couponing.

Retailers face growing privacy liability from commonplace website technologies such as cookies, tracking pixels, and similar analytics and marketing tools. Plaintiffs invoke the California Invasion of Privacy Act (“CIPA”) and the federal Electronic Communications Privacy Act (“ECPA”), statutes enacted decades before these technologies existed. These claims pose a heightened risk for retailers whose e-commerce operations depend on high-traffic websites and apps, real-time analytics, advertising technology, and customer-support chat features.

In retail, the most valuable assets often include pricing strategies, customer analytics, vendor terms, and private-label specifications. These trade secrets provide a critical edge in a hyper-competitive market. However, that advantage vanishes if proprietary data is leaked by a vendor or downloaded by a departing employee.

Under the Defend Trade Secrets Act, legal remedies often depend on whether a company took “reasonable measures” to maintain secrecy before a dispute arose. For a General Counsel (“GC”), trade secret protection is a governance priority, not just a litigation response.

Artificial Intelligence is being rapidly becoming a normal part of individuals’ professional and personal lives. In the legal industry, generative AI (“GenAI”) is being frequently discussed, with countless articles discussing its impacts, benefits, and implementation. But what are the practical implications and uses of GenAI in retail leasing?

On June 25, 2026, the Supreme Court held in Monsanto Co. v. Durnell that the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (“FIFRA”) preempts state law failure-to-warn claims that would require a manufacturer to add or modify warnings EPA-approved warnings on pesticide labels.  This decision is the culmination of decades of product liability litigation alleging that the popular Roundup herbicide was carcinogenic and lacked sufficient warning labels under state tort laws. While this decision will likely close the book on the Roundup litigation, it also has important implications for any manufacturers that produce products subject to federal regulation under FIFRA.  

Although supply chain labor has long been a primary focus for unions, the COVID pandemic changed how labor viewed supply chain leverage, especially in retail. Years of planning during COVID produced new approaches to creating co-employer liability for lead firms—companies that sit at the top of supply chains, franchise systems, subcontracting networks, and other business arrangements in which work integral to their business is performed by workers whose legal employer is another entity.  Initial steps are now maturing into a comprehensive approach aimed at the commercial heart of the retail model. By 2027, retail's central labor challenge will be a sophisticated, top-down strategy to force lead firms into binding agreements.

On September 28, 2026, California Governor Gavin Newsom signed Assembly Bill 2244, the California Certified Food Standard Act, into law, establishing the nation’s first government-backed “Non-Ultra processed Certified” label.  Under the new law, food manufacturers may voluntarily use the state certification mark on qualifying products that meet California’s definition of non-ultra processed foods.  Public concern regarding ultra processed foods has grown in recent years, and state and federal lawmakers have increasingly sought ways to address those concerns. 

On September 17, 2026, the European Commission published its proposal for the EU KIDS Act (the “Act”). The Act proposes to create a harmonized EU framework aimed at strengthening protections for children online, including by limiting children’s access to social media platforms and imposing new safety obligations on providers.

Recently, the Colorado legislature sent a bill, HB 26-1210, to Governor Jared Polis’ desk that would place limitations on the use of artificial intelligence to either 1) set prices for consumers; or 2) set wages for employees.  Governor Polis vetoed the bill, citing vague and overly broad definitions in the bill’s text.  But the conduct prohibited in the bill has been the subject of numerous bills in legislatures all across the country. Retailers should take note and proceed with caution if using AI to set wages. 

FinCEN has now finalized the significant narrowing of the Corporate Transparency Act’s (CTA) beneficial ownership information (BOI) reporting requirements that it first adopted on an interim basis in March 2025, including removing the requirement for updating information provided for FinCEN identifiers. At the same time, the constitutional challenge to the CTA remains pending, with a petition asking the US Supreme Court to review the Eleventh Circuit’s decision upholding the statute. For US companies and US persons, the practical takeaway is simple: For now, there is no CTA BOI reporting obligation.