Compliance & Ethics

For nearly a decade, retailers buying pet food and supplies from Plaček Pet Products were not entirely free to decide what those products would cost when they reached the shelf. The Czech Office for the Protection of Competition said the distributor set minimum retail prices for dog and cat food and other pet supplies from Jan. 17, 2013, through March 3, 2022, requiring its customers to follow them. The conduct has now resulted in a fine of about $1.7 million (CZK 36.438 million).

For nearly seven years, transport companies serving the Polish supermarket chain agreed not to compete with one another for drivers, according to Poland’s Office of Competition and Consumer Protection, or UOKiK. Moving from one participating carrier to another could require the permission of the employer the driver was trying to leave. Without it, the driver could be kept out of the distribution center for months.

Europe’s data protection authorities have never lacked ways to punish a GDPR violation. They can warn an organization, reprimand it, order it to change what it is doing, restrict its processing or stop that processing altogether. And, of course, they can fine it. What has been less settled is how an authority should decide among those choices.

Amway and two of its largest affiliates have agreed to a $225 million judgment to resolve allegations that they used unfair and deceptive practices to recruit people into Amway's multilevel marketing business and keep them buying products once they were there. Nearly all of the money would go to participants who lost money after being recruited by the two affiliates, World Wide Group LLC and Leadership Team Development Inc.

The Justice Department has revised its enforcement policies under the False Claims Act, restoring restrictions on the use of agency guidance in litigation and instructing government attorneys to consider whether whistleblower lawsuits should be dismissed when DOJ declines to join them.

Sabre Global Technologies knew Ural Airlines had been sanctioned on the day the designation took effect. The travel technology company continued providing services to the Russian carrier for another seven months. Then, when its UK bank blocked payments over sanctions concerns, the company began looking for another way to get paid, which has now cost Sabre Global Technologies Limited (SGTL) £1,000,920.59.

Corpay, formerly known as FleetCor Technologies, and CEO Ronald Clarke have agreed to pay $100 million to resolve a Federal Trade Commission administrative action stemming from the company’s fuel card practices, years after the agency first accused it of charging businesses hidden or unauthorized fees.