Hunton Retail Law Resource

Our 2023 Retail Industry Year in Review provides a comprehensive overview of recent developments, issues, and trends impacting retailers, as well as a look ahead at what to expect in 2024. We hope you will take a few minutes to review our new publication released last week.

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In the first four months of 2021, Virginia, New Mexico, New York and New Jersey passed laws legalizing or decriminalizing, in some form, recreational marijuana.  Exactly how these laws will affect employers in these states is still an open question, but for now, employers should understand the nuances of the laws so they can prepare for the emerging reality that is legal marijuana.  For retail employers, this means renewed attention to drug use and drug testing policies.  Retailers, for the most part, are still able to enforce policies against drug use at work, but must be mindful of how these policies, especially with regards to testing and marijuana, could leave them open to claims of discrimination or state law violations.  At a minimum, retailers should review their policies for each state in which they operate, as a “one-size-fits-all” approach may no longer be practical.

On July 22, 2020 Leaflink, a B2B cannabis marketplace, closed a $250 million senior secured credit facility with an undisclosed private lender. In the press release, Leaflink described the deal as “one of the largest debt financing deals completed in cannabis to date and…an important milestone for the industry.” When most people think of cannabis industry financing for retailers or operators, rather than debt financing, they think of sale-leasebacks with a cannabis real estate investment trust (REIT). Leaflink intends to use the money to provide supply chain financing options to its retailer clients through its new platform Leaflink Financial. This blog post gives a brief overview on why sale-leasebacks are ubiquitous and why debt financing is on the rise.

Innovation and developments in technology bring both opportunities and challenges for the retail industry, and Hunton Andrews Kurth has a sophisticated understanding of these issues and how they affect retailers. On January 23, 2020, our cross-disciplinary retail team, composed of over 200 lawyers, released our annual Retail Industry Year in Review. The 2019 edition, Spotlight on Technology, provides an overview and analysis of recent developments impacting retailers, as well as what to expect in 2020 and beyond. Topics discussed include: braille gift cards as the next wave of ...

As reported on the November 14, 2019 posting to the Hunton Insurance Recovery Blog, last week, in an exciting moment, the U.S. House of Representatives voted 321 to 103 in favor of H.R.1595, the Secure and Fair Enforcement Banking Act of 2019 (“SAFE Banking Act”). If enacted into law, the SAFE Banking Act, would provide financial institutions, including insurers, a safe harbor to do business with “cannabis-related legitimate businesses” in the United States. In particular, the act would protect insurers, independent agents, and brokers from criminal and civil liability ...