Millions of credit cards are swiped each day in America, meaning Visa and MasterCard are raking in big bucks from retailers daily under the current fee structure. Following a dispute over the swipe fees, Visa and MasterCard were prepping to pay out a $7.2 billion settlement to retailers, but now, the brands and the National Retail Federation have denied the settlement and instead have decided to sue the credit companies. 

Macy's, Target, Office Max, JCPenney, Kohl’s, Saks, and about a dozen other big retailers have banded together and sued Visa and MasterCard, Reuters reports. Walmart and 18 other retailers didn’t get in on the suit, but will “consider pursuing separate legal actions over damages.”Continue reading...

Dell reports 79 percent drop in profit as takeover battle continues.

Dow Chemical is ordered to pay $1.2 billion in price-fixing case.

Google Glass expands apps and integrates Facebook and Twitter.

Apple fights back in antitrust case over e-book pricing as it loses luster in global poll.

Audi shifts to high-performance models to propel sales.

BlackBerry regains lost market share in Canada.

Citigroup bans traders from using Bloomberg terminal chat groups.Continue reading...

J.C. Penney recently resumed its marketing strategy of raising prices, then discounting them on its private brands which include St. John's Bay, jcp and Stafford and Arizona, which generate more than half of the company’s overall revenue. 

"While our prices continue to represent a tremendous value every day, we now understand that customers are motivated by promotions and prefer to receive discounts through sales and coupons applied at the register," JCP spokeswoman Daphne Avila told Reuters.

That means an Arizona crewneck T-shirt with an "everyday" price of $5 now has a $6 pricetag to accommodate a better markdown and arrive at the same price. The move is an effort to reverse a 25 percent drop in fiscal year sales. The practice is common in retail and used by rivals Macy’s and Kohl's.

“The company said that it has now realized that coupons and sales attract more customers and that this is the market trend,” writes Nautilus Investment Strategies on the reversal of CEO Ron Johnson’s earlier "no sale" stance. “Market analysts feel that at this point no strategy change is going to change the fate of the company as a large number of customers have already gravitated towards other retailers such as Target and Macy’s.”Continue reading...

One more day of Martha Stewart on the stand in the Macy's-JCPenney trial over her brand and wares, and neither retailer may not want her anymore.

Testimony by the 71-year-old Diva of Domesticity on Tuesday at times sounded like something from Les Miserables or A Tale of Two Cities, leaving her views of the differences between Penney's and Macy's customers abundantly clear.

Penney customers "have 30 percent less income than Macy's shoppers," she said near the end of her testimony, according to the Twitter coverage from the courtroom by Ashley Lutz, who covers retail for Business Insider. "They're going to buy different things."

Not long after, a Macy's attorney in the landmark court case called her out for saying that JCP has different customers than Macy's, the lawyer noting that the Macy's contract prohibited her brand from collaborating with "downscale" partners, presumably because it would tarnish the value of the Stewart marque for Macy's.Continue reading...

Yahoo! teams up with Facebook for social site revamp as Marissa Mayer puts her stamp on the homepage.

GE sues Whirlpool over alleged price fixing in Europe.

New York Times puts Boston Globe on the block.

AB InBev updates Modela discussions with DOJ.

Alamo targets broader audience.

Apple files patent for slap version of rumored iWatch.

AT&T expands partnership with BMW.

Boeing plans to propose package of fixes for Dreamliner.

Burger King unveils new ads with a human element.Continue reading...

Amazon reported weaker-than-expected sales and earnings for the fourth quarter on Tuesday.

But investors quickly seemed to give the online-retailing giant a pass — partly because they figured the results reflected general economic reality, and partly because Amazon continues to be an unrivaled, trailblazing juggernaut that keeps all its competitors on their toes.

Revenue jumped 22 percent during the quarter to more than $21 billion, but fell short of analysts' expectations of more than $22 billion. And Amazon's profits were just $97 million during the period, compared with $177 million a year earlier.Continue reading...

JCPenney and Macy's set for trial over Martha Stewart.

BMW blows away Mercedes-Benz with December sales to claim U.S. 2012 luxury-segment crown.

CES trend-watching and predicting begins.

Adweek invites votes on best and worst brand extensions of the year.

Al Jazeera deal for Current TV could change U.S. cable news.

American Airlines promises merger decision on US Airways within weeks.

Apple sees iPad lift from holiday sales and marketing.

Barnes & Noble sees Nook lose ground in tablet wars.Continue reading...

As holiday season is now upon us, the two major U.S. shippers are gearing up as e-commerce and mobile access portend a healthy economic surge this week, through Grey Thursday, Black Friday, Cyber Monday and into full-fledged holiday shopping mania.

According to the National Retail Federation, overall holiday sales are expected to rise 4.1% compared to last year – a bellwether for the health of the economy, with electronic items, apparel, and luxury comprising a significant portion of total holiday shipping volumes.

Both UPS and FedEx have delivery contracts with most of the biggest e-tailers including Toys R Us, Kohl's, Walmart, Macy's, eBay and Amazon.

UPS (the brand formerly known as United Parcel Service) expects shipments to hit record levels up 10% from last year and plans to hire 55,000 seasonal workers, and estimates it will deliver 527 million packages between Thanksgiving and Christmas, topping last year’s record of 480 million.

Their busiest day will be Dec. 20, with an estimated 28 million packages delivered, up from the regular 15.8 million packages daily.Continue reading...