Yuki Tanaka 
California enacted its first state monopolization law on September 30, 2026, and the COMPETE Act takes effect January 1, 2027. It reaches single-firm conduct including monopsony, and only the Attorney General and district attorneys can enforce it.
The FTC has settled its first Robinson-Patman Act case in a generation, imposing six years of monitored pricing limits on Southern Glazer’s across 26 states. Chairman Ferguson disclosed that discovery put total annual harm at roughly $15.7m, far below the 2024 complaint’s framing.
Nu Holdings launched US banking on September 10, 2026 paying 3.50% APY on USDC balances inside Nu Global, roughly 130 days before the GENIUS Act takes effect. Three September signals suggest Nu likely cuts, recasts or relocates that yield before March 31, 2027.
Two Minnesota shoppers sued Target on 25 September over the $994 million IEEPA tariff refund it booked in August, asking a federal judge to order the money returned to customers. It is the second consumer class action against the retailer on that theory, and part of a wave of more than 80 such suits.
From 1 October 2026 Australian merchants can no longer surcharge eftpos, Mastercard or Visa payments, and domestic interchange caps fall the same day. About A$1.8 billion of annual surcharges moves into shelf prices, absorbed margin and repriced credit card rewards.
The FTC’s public comment record on personalized pricing closed on September 25, 2026, with advertising and technology trade groups calling the proposed disclosure duty unworkably vague and a litigation group framing it as compelled speech. Walmart used the same day to pledge it will never price the person instead of the product.
The EU’s overhaul of its customs framework became law on September 21, 2026, creating an EU Customs Authority in Lille and making platforms the deemed importer for goods sold into the bloc. The next live deadline is an EU-wide handling fee on small parcels from November 1, layered on the EUR 3 flat duty already in force since July.
H&M publishes its nine-month report on September 24 at 08:00 CEST, with consensus calling for SEK 57.1 billion of Q3 sales and SEK 5.1 billion of operating profit after a second-quarter sales miss. The unanswered question is the US tariff refund process the company disclosed in June and has not quantified.
FedEx starts charging demand surcharges on US imports from Canada, Europe, Latin America and the Caribbean on September 21, 2026, and more than doubles its China and Asia-Pacific rates. Here is the full per-pound schedule, the lanes it replaces and what cross-border sellers should do before Monday.
Kohl’s, Lowe’s and Target handed marketing, e-commerce, loyalty and retail media to a single executive inside three weeks. Signals point to loyalty-gated personalized offers displacing broad promotions, quantified on the fiscal Q4 calls by mid-March 2027.