Judge won’t toss Target lawsuit by shareholders

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Investors mount backlash against ‘pride’ policies.

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Embattled retail chain claims its general warnings were sufficient

— but federal judge says maybe not.

By Zachary Stieber, The Epoch Times – December 7, 2024

Target shareholders have survived a motion to dismiss in a lawsuit brought over Target’s promotion of pro-LGBT gear.

Target’s motion was turned down by U.S. District Judge John Badalamenti, who said the available evidence shows that Target might have misled investors about the risks of its new ‘Pride Month’ campaign.

Target in its annual reports issued general warnings about possible backlash to diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) efforts, but did not specifically outline the risks of promoting Pride Month gear, an omission that plaintiffs said violates federal law that bars companies from engaging in manipulation or deception with regards to securities.

Target said its general warnings were sufficient, but the judge said that may not be true.

“Defendants’ general warning in their risk disclosure could be materially misleading because it was not specifically tailored to the risks from their 2023 Pride Month Campaign,” Badalamenti said in a 43-page ruling, referencing Target’s 2021 statements.

Target pointed to public news reports about its favoring LGBT initiatives to defend the lack of specificity in its 2022 statements, but company officials “overlook that none of the paragraphs they cite mention Target’s plans for a new and aggressive 2023 Pride Month Campaign,” the judge added later.

“Upon review of the amended complaint and the parties briefing, it is unclear whether this information was publicly available, and it is further unclear how much information investors and Plaintiffs knew about the plans for the new campaign,” he wrote. “Thus, Plaintiffs have adequately pleaded that information revealed in the 2021 and 2022 risk disclosures may not have been complete.”

Target did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The Pride Month promotion in 2023 sparked widespread boycotts. Amid the backlash, Target lost tens of billions of dollars in market valuation and sales slipped. Target this year displayed a more limited selection of Pride Month products.

Target lawyers in court filings said the campaign did not lead to losses, but several officials said otherwise in a 2023 earnings call. One said that one of the financial headwinds affecting Target was a “strong reaction to this year’s pride assortment.” That contributed to plaintiffs surviving the motion to dismiss.

Brian Craig and other investors brought the lawsuit. They’re being represented by America First Legal, a nonprofit founded by Stephen Miller, a onetime and future adviser to President-elect Donald Trump.

Reed D. Rubinstein, the nonprofit’s senior vice president, said in a statement that the new ruling “is a warning to publicly traded corporations’ boards and management: Our federal securities laws mandate fair and honest disclosure of the market risk created by management when it uses shareholder resources, including consumer goodwill, to advance idiosyncratic and extreme social or political preferences.”