Law

UK mistakes City liberalisation for a growth plan

15 Nov 2024

Finance minister Rachel Reeves wants to unleash the 153-bln-pound financial sector to boost the economy. It’s not clear that her reforms so far, like a share-trading venue for private companies, will do that. Meatier deregulation, meanwhile, would raise the risk of future crises.

Shell’s legal win flags need for new green metrics

12 Nov 2024

A Dutch court has nixed a 2021 ruling forcing the $204 bln oil major to cut emissions by 45% by 2030. Such metrics had already been undermined by Big Oil asset sales, which don’t stop climate change. Drillers’ spending on low-carbon energy is a better gauge of green credentials.

The power and peril of American economic warfare

12 Nov 2024

Successive US presidents have wielded sanctions and export controls against rival nations. Donald Trump promises further escalation. In this episode of the Big View podcast, political scientist Henry Farrell explains how weaponizing finance and technology can be self-defeating.

ASML faces bigger problems than China

16 Sep 2024

Fears of US tech export curbs have pummelled the $320 bln Dutch firm’s shares. A longer-term worry is that the growth of AI leads to new technologies, and less need for ASML’s machines that make chips smaller and efficient. That, more than trade wars, may hurt its rich valuation.

Telegram and X expose tech platforms’ new reality

12 Sep 2024

The arrest of Pavel Durov, founder of the controversial messaging app, and the ban of X in Brazil shows state officials are not afraid to intervene in Big Tech. In this Viewsroom podcast, Breakingviews columnists debate what it means and how CEOs should manage the threat.

Telegram’s route to profitability looks dubious

3 Sep 2024

The troubled app’s CEO Pavel Durov runs a lossmaking enterprise. The easiest path to profitability is to echo Facebook, but content moderation costs would further hit Telegram’s finances. The main alternative is to be a messaging app, but WhatsApp implies that’s hard to monetise.

Telegram CEO arrest is fuzzy warning to Big Tech

28 Aug 2024

Paris prosecutors detained Pavel Durov as part of a probe into illicit activity on the app. The specifics of the case and French law have little read across for rivals like Mark Zuckerberg or Elon Musk. Yet a global scandal will heap pressure on platforms to clean up content.

New EU antitrust tsar has better tools, harder job

27 Aug 2024

The European Union will soon have a new competition commissioner. Margrethe Vestager’s replacement has greater scope to go after Big Tech and Chinese subsidies. But he or she will also have to defend the single market from the assault of EU members’ national industrial policies.

Luxury’s legal pain is new threat to valuations

20 Aug 2024

Italian prosecutors allege sweatshop-like worker conditions at subcontractors of houses like LVMH’s Dior. That’s a bad look after recent luxury price rises. But if the sector has to hike costs to improve its supply chains, investors may find a new reason to mark valuations down.

Court-emboldened capital puts labor on front lines

9 Aug 2024

Starbucks and SpaceX are among the employers testing the scope of a recent US Supreme Court decision against SEC tribunals. If it extends to a labor law agency, it would be a setback for reinvigorated unions and give companies proof of concept to undo rulings elsewhere.

UK financial watchdog’s H2O thwack has a downside

8 Aug 2024

The fund group will repay 250 mln euros after the FCA said it bought esoteric bonds and didn’t declare conflicts. The deal gets money to investors quicker than if a fine had been levied. But, at just a fraction of what some clients are claiming, the settlement risks looking soft.

Google is a monopoly, long live Google

5 Aug 2024

Alphabet’s search giant illegally wields its might over rivals, a US judge has ruled. The decision also carefully stays within classic antitrust boundaries. Given how tricky disentangling the $2 trln company’s technology would be, a market-shaking penalty will be hard to impose.

Corporate America revels in Supreme Court windfall

23 Jul 2024

The most influential set of business-related rulings in decades augurs sweeping US deregulation. One case alone may save the medical testing industry some $30 bln, as companies race to challenge many longstanding rules. Receptive judges would help pay dividends for years.

Tech poster child poses a problem for Korea Inc

23 Jul 2024

Billionaire Brian Kim’s arrest for his role in a K-Pop deal adds to his Kakao empire's mounting legal woes. Its dominance in messaging also is a regulatory headache. Yet a tough crackdown on the company could jeopardise the country’s new breed of promising global businesses.

European boards have too little skin in the game

17 Jul 2024

Non-executive directors at big US companies get 60% of their pay in equity. That’s rare in Britain, France and Germany, where many board members own a slither of stock. Cash fees warp incentives, discourage engagement, and risk making Europe’s capital markets less competitive.

European board pay requires a US-style overhaul

16 Jul 2024

Non-executive directors at UK and EU-based firms own little equity in the companies they oversee. In this Exchange podcast, Liad Meidar of the hedge fund Gatemore argues that this is a problem, while Peter Boreham of the pay consultancy Mercer explains why it’s hard to change.

US deregulatory triage ranges from cars to drugs

1 Jul 2024

The Supreme Court has curtailed agencies’ power to act beyond the bounds of explicit legislation. With no legal doctrine to guide what happens next, everything from Biden administration efforts to support electric vehicles to the basics of approving medicines is under the gun.

White-collar crime gets crack at messy due process

27 Jun 2024

The US Supreme Court dealt a blow to securities regulators Thursday by requiring jury trials in cases of fraud. Neither courts nor regulators have resources for that. Plus the ruling opens the door for internal courts at other agencies – from the FTC to FERC – to be weakened.

Top US court prepares a deregulatory deluge

14 Jun 2024

A decision coming soon may curb the power of agencies to interpret federal law. Unleash the corporate lawyers. Decades of rules and guidelines would be up for debate, leading to logjams for overwhelmed judges. But it will be worth the wait for companies eager for laxer oversight.

Trump’s rich backers normalize criminal behavior

30 May 2024

In a historic verdict, the property mogul became the first US president convicted in court. His outlandish behavior hasn’t cost him support from billionaires such as Blackstone’s Steve Schwarzman, whose money may help Trump get re-elected. Their collective greed is now on trial.