Hunton Retail Law Resource

Retailers continue to deploy AI throughout their enterprises, with particular emphasis on enhancing operational productivity. One area where AI can improve operational efficiency is predictive inventory and logistics planning. Yet the technology is not without risk, and businesses should understand both the challenges associated with deploying AI and the ways they can mitigate supply chain and logistics disruptions through insurance and other forms of risk transfer when the technology fails to perform.

The NCAA’s eligibility rules have been facing growing antitrust pressure as athletes argue that limits on how long they can compete effectively limit how long they can earn from name, image, and likeness (“NIL”) opportunities and revenue-sharing income tied to Division I sports. Current NCAA Bylaw 12.6 allows Division I athletes five years to complete four seasons of competition, with exceptions tied to injuries, illnesses, transfers, and redshirt rules. Athletes are challenging those rules as anticompetitive under Section 1 of the Sherman Act.

Self-checkout has become a familiar feature in many retail stores, but it is also drawing increasing attention from state and local lawmakers. Several US states have proposed legislation to restrict self-checkout usage largely in response to theft and labor concerns. While no statewide bills have been signed into law, this is a trend retailers should watch closely.

Retail employers are navigating an immigration compliance environment that is becoming more complex at both the operational and strategic levels. Recent policy changes require employers to respond to shifting humanitarian-based work authorization categories, while proposed wage changes could reshape the economics of hiring and retaining professional foreign national talent. 

National advertising campaigns of old required multi-day model shoots, multi-camera video productions, and multi-disciplinary graphic creation. Generative AI advertising, however, has opened a new chapter in marketing ideation and production. For retailers in particular, these tools make it faster and cheaper to create digital ads, seasonal promotions, product images, and social media content—often without involving traditional agencies or creative teams. Even old commercials and brand stories, once thought to be merely corporate history, are getting new life and are being reimagined and repurposed. While the speed-to-market and costs perspective advantages of AI generated advertising are adulated by their developers, the risks—and who bears the responsibility for those risks—are often understated.