Breaking news, industry updates, and the latest developments shaping global retail, e-commerce, and commerce technology.
US holiday retail sales per retail-trade employee likely set a series record this season, rising roughly 4% or more year over year. Three signals from late August and September 2026 point that way, and Census and BLS data will settle it by mid-February 2027.
India will charge merchants a 0.4% discount rate on UPI payments above INR 2,000 from October 15, 2026, ending nearly seven years of free acceptance on the world’s largest instant payment rail. The government has ruled out any delay as trade bodies demand a rollback and the dispute reaches the Supreme Court.
Korea Fair Trade Commission chair Ju Biung-ghi said on September 21 the agency will rewrite its investigation rules after a court stayed its Coupang inspection through September 23, and rejected US House pressure over the case. The dispute ties a supplier-cost probe to a Section 301 petition, a House report and a USD 410 million privacy fine.
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.
Retailers have booked most of their IEEPA tariff refunds, and the second-quarter filings split into reinvestors (Walmart, Dollar Tree, Burlington) and bankers (Target, Home Depot, TJX, Ross, Dollar General). The signals point to the banked cash reaching shareholders by the March 2027 reporting round, with Target resuming buybacks as the test case.
Google has pulled free product listings and organic product carousels from search results across the European Economic Area to comply with the Digital Markets Act, days before its September 21 compliance deadline. Retailers now reach shoppers through paid Shopping ads, comparison services or a new aggregator unit.
Seattle City Council votes September 22 on CB 121267, a first-in-the-nation city ban on grocery surveillance pricing that reaches Kroger, Albertsons, Amazon, Walmart and Instacart. The ordinance carries fines of up to $3,000 per violation, a private right of action capped at $1 million, and a September 1, 2027 start date.
India’s amended e-commerce rules start on January 1, 2027, and three signals point to the first enforcement action landing on a quick-commerce or food-delivery platform rather than on Amazon or Flipkart. The scoring window closes March 31, 2027, with the date itself expected to hold.
A federal court has approved a revised FTC order that lifts the Amazon Prime settlement refund cap from $51 to $200 and opens automatic payments to members who used 11 to 20 benefits a year. New payments begin October 1, 2026, with no claim form required.
Senators Tammy Baldwin and Rick Scott asked the FTC on September 17 to investigate whether Amazon’s Alexa for Shopping and Walmart’s Sparky suppress Made in USA products and ignore fraudulent origin labels. The request rests on a Columbia Law School report and a March 2026 executive order that put marketplaces on the hook.