Category: Regulatory News

Mercer to pay $12 million penalty for misleading representations and fee disclosure failures

Mercer Financial Advice has been ordered by the Federal Court to pay a $12 million penalty for breaching fee disclosure obligations and for wrongly charging fees to customers, ASIC has reported. “This is a significant penalty for a financial advice provider,” said Sarah Court (pictured above), ASIC deputy chair. “Mercer failed in its obligation to provide fee disclosure statements to…

US audit inspectors unveil $7.9mn fines on China-based firms

WASHINGTON: US inspectors announced fines against China-based firms Thursday, as part of a broader effort to hold US-listed Chinese companies up to American auditing standards amid simmering geopolitical tensions. These included PwC affiliates in Hong Kong and China, alongside a Chinese audit company. The $7.9 million in penalties unveiled by the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB) represent some of the…

Shopify Files Fresh Lawsuit over DMCA Takedown Harassment

At the peak of the online shopping season, Canadian e-commerce giant Shopify filed a new lawsuit to take a stand against DMCA abuse. The company filed a complaint at a Florida federal court, accusing an Orlando resident of filing dozens of false takedown notices, allegedly to advance their own commercial interests. Signed into law a quarter century ago, the Digital…

Italy Deals a Blow to WEF and Bill Gates with Historic Ban on Cultivated Meat

Italy has just delivered a devastating blow to the controversial agenda of the World Economic Forum (WEF) and billionaire magnate Bill Gates for global food control, with the historic approval of a ban on the production and sale of cultivated meat. The Chamber of Deputies voted 159 in favor, 53 against, and 34 abstentions in support of the bill presented by Minister…

LockBit ransomware leaks gigabytes of Boeing data

The LockBit ransomware gang published data stolen from Boeing, one of the largest aerospace companies that services commercial airplanes and defense systems. Before the leak, LockBit hackers said that Boeing ignored warnings that data would become publicly available and threatened to publish a sample of about 4GB of the most recent files. Backup data published LockBit ransomware has leaked more…

Recent Discover Lawsuits Provide Compliance Lessons (Mannacio v. Discover Financial Services, et al., 23-cv-06788)

In September, a class action lawsuit (Mannacio v. Discover Financial Services, et al., No. 23-cv-06788 (N.D. Ill.)) was filed against Discover Financial Services (“Discover”) alleging Discover and certain current and/or former executives violated the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. Specifically, the class action complaint alleged that the defendants made false and/or misleading statements and/or failed to disclose that: (i) Discover…

Telecom Italia is selling its landline network to American Private Equity Giant KKR

Telecom Italia SpA has agreed to sell its land-line network to KKR & Co. in a government-backed deal valued at around €22 billion ($23.6 billion), according to people familiar with the matter. The phone carrier’s board of directors, after a marathon meeting that started on Friday, approved the grid sale to the US private equity giant on Sunday without making it conditional on…

PayPal Granted Green Light For Crypto Services In The UK

In a recent development, PayPal has been registered by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) to offer crypto asset activities in Britain. This move comes as PayPal establishes a post-Brexit base in the UK, reflecting its commitment to serving the British market. According to a Reuters report, the crypto market in the UK awaits its first set of regulations; companies seeking…

Casio discloses data breach impacting customers in 149 countries

Japanese electronics manufacturer Casio disclosed a data breach impacting customers from 149 countries after hackers gained to the servers of its ClassPad education platform. Casio detected the incident on Wednesday, October 11, following the failure of a ClassPad database within the company’s development environment. Evidence suggests that the attacker accessed customers’ personal information a day later, on October 12. The…

RSC calls on UK government to take action on PFAS levels in tap water

The Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC) is calling on the UK government to reduce the current cap on individual per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) in drinking water from 100ng/l to 10ng/l, warning that levels above this pose a significant risk to public health. The RSC’s call follows new analysis revealing that more than a third of water courses tested in…

What Google’s antitrust trial means for search

If government regulators prevail against Google in the biggest U.S. antitrust trial in a quarter century, it’s likely to unleash drastic changes that will undermine the dominance of a search engine that defines the internet for billions of people. As the 10-week trial probing Google’s business practices nears its midway point, it’s still too early to tell if U.S. District…

Reddit Sees Copyright Takedowns Peak While Subreddit Bans Drop

Reddit’s latest transparency report shows a modest increase in DMCA takedown notices. The number of copyright infringement-related user- and subreddit bans has declined, however. The latest data follows a hectic period at Reddit, where protests over an API policy change triggered a ‘dramatic’ 1169% increase in user data requests. With millions of daily users, Reddit is without a doubt one…

Popular “AI Hub” Discord Taken Down Following Copyright Complaints

In just a few months, “AI Hub” became a massively popular Discord server with over half a million members. While copyright infringement was strictly forbidden, not all users stuck to the rules. This previously raised the attention of the RIAA, and now appears to have caused the server’s downfall after it was suddenly shut down. Artificial intelligence is booming. Dozens…

FCA sets out initial findings on bank account access and closures

The information supplied by banks, building societies and payment companies suggests that no firm closed an account between July 2022 and June 2023 primarily because of a customer’s political views. The Payment Accounts Regulations ban banks or building societies discriminating on this basis. The FCA will be doing further work with firms to verify the data and to better understand…

Philippines Pirate Site Blocking Scheme Comes to Fruition

This month, the Philippines celebrates its creative industries by dedicating a special month to their work. On top of that, the Government presented a long-awaited ‘gift’. The Intellectual Property Office of the Philippines (IPOPHL) announced that local site-blocking plans are about to come to fruition. IPOPHL Director General Rowel Barba signed a memorandum that will go into effect in late…

Disclosure of Pirates’ Identities “Compatible With EU Privacy Laws”

Following the creation of its Hadopi anti-piracy agency over 13 years ago, France monitored and stored data on millions of users suspected of infringing copyrights. The majority were BitTorrent users and the plan was to use evidence of their piracy activities as a basis for escalating actions including warnings, fines, and ultimately, internet disconnections. Operating the program for a decade…