A potential labor strike by longshoremen along the U.S. East and Gulf Coasts at the end of the year could have devastating economic consequences as inventory depletion, rerouting, hoarding, and price speculation ripple through supply chains of global companies, according to a report from the Marsh research firm.

Import cargo volume at the nation's major retail container ports is expected to increase 3.9 percent in December despite a strike that closed the nation's largest port complex for the first few days of the month, but retailers are keeping a close watch on a possible strike on the East Coast and Gulf Coast, according to the monthly Global Port Tracker report released today by the National Retail Federation and Hackett Associates.

Two industry groups have joined to fill the need for a globally harmonized approach to measure and communicate product lifecycles. The Consumer Goods Forum, a global network of more than 400 retailers, manufacturers, service providers and other stakeholders, has partnered with The Sustainability Consortium, which is dedicated to developing science and integrated tools to support informed decision making for product sustainability across the consumer goods industry.

IFS has created a new software module to aid in export compliance in the aerospace and defense market.

As the holiday buying season continues to gather steam, the Consumer Fraud Center has warned about a fast-growing trend: the sale of goods at bargain-basement prices through so-called "daily deal" sites, which can mask the sale of counterfeit or illicit goods.

Internet service providers and trade groups for movies and music are partnering in the latest effort to curb online copyright infringement. Under the "six strikes" plan, users who share copyrighted material online will face an escalating series of warnings that could eventually result in the slowing of their internet speeds.