Hunton Retail Law Resource

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.

Your arbitration clause may be solid. But your screen flow needs to be clear if you want a court to enforce it. 

Courts continue to evaluate online arbitration agreements under ordinary state-law contract formation principles: did the customer receive reasonably conspicuous notice, and did the customer take the action the site said would constitute assent? 

In practice, this means courts are not just reading the clause – they are also scrutinizing the online user interface around it. They are looking at clutter, button placement, hyperlink visibility, font size, and whether the page clearly tells the user what clicking means.  

The Federal Trade Commission has joined a handful of states that are taking aim at surveillance pricing.  The FTC recently announced a draft enforcement policy related to personalized pricing, which it defines as “the use of personal data to set prices according to the amount that a company believes an individual consumer is willing to spend.”

On July 30 and 31, 2026, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) and the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) unveiled a coordinated series of regulatory and policy actions that together represent the most significant recalibration of federal autonomous vehicle (AV) oversight in years. These actions accelerate near-term commercial deployment of AVs through granting the first-ever commercial exemption for robotaxis and streamlining exemption processes. Additionally, these actions provide stakeholders with considerable opportunities to engage with the agency and shape the AV legal framework. This alert provides an overview of each action and takeaways for AV developers and industry stakeholders. 

For decades, radius restrictions have been a staple of retail leasing. Traditionally, these provisions have served two related purposes. Shopping center landlords often require tenants to refrain from operating another store within a specified geographic area in order to protect sales and traffic at the leased location. At the same time, retail tenants frequently negotiate their own radius protections, limiting a landlord’s ability to lease nearby shopping centers to direct competitors or to permit uses that could undermine the tenant’s market position.