The opinion issued today by U.S. District Court judge Emmet Sullivan doesn’t actually say that the country’s biggest office supply chain, Staples, can’t acquire the #2 office supply chain, Office Depot. As the Federal Trade Commission requested, the judge granted a preliminary injunction stopping the merger. That prevents the companies from merging until the FTC is done with their administrative antitrust case, but representatives of the two companies previously said that they would break the engagement if the FTC prevailed. [More]
the dream is over
Walmart Closes Now-Infamous Online Price-Matching Loophole
By 11.20.14
It was fabulous news for bargain-hunters when Walmart announced a change to its price-matching policy, allowing shoppers to bring in listings from popular online retailers as long as the items are identical. When some shoppers formulated an evil-genius plan to use fake third-party seller Amazon listings to buy PlayStation 4s for less than 25% of the sticker price, the wording of the original policy technically allowed this to happen. Walmart has responded by changing their policy. [More]
Starbucks Shuts Down Jonathan's Card Over Fraud Concerns
By 8.15.11
The Jonathan’s Card social experiment is over. The experiment proved that someone will always come along and ruin anything that’s fun. Since July, the entire world has shared one Starbucks stored-value payment and rewards card, which originally belonged to a guy named Jonathan. People from all over bought coffees using the card, sneaked part of its balance over to their own cards, refilled the card, and followed the card’s fortunes on Twitter. It’s all over now: Starbucks deactivated the card on Friday evening over fraud concerns. Specifically, an automated script that steals from the card. [More]
