The U.S. Federal Trade Commission on Monday issued warning letters to eight companies whose advertising appears to overstate where their products were made. Seven companies were told their products may have been falsely marketed as "Made in the USA," while another received a warning over products advertised as "Made in Texas," despite indications they were imported, either entirely or in significant part.
There is a familiar rhythm to businesses that promise financial independence. The details change with technology but the promise remains durable. There is a system, the system works, and ordinary people need only follow it. The Federal Trade Commission argues that Publishing.com sold precisely that story, and on Thursday the agency formally closed the case with a final order designed to ensure the company cannot tell it the same way again.
The Federal Court of Australia has ordered ASX to pay a civil penalty of $13.5 million (AUD 20.5 million) after the exchange admitted that a market announcement misled investors by stating the Clearing House Electronic Subregister System (CHESS) replacement project was "progressing well." The court also ordered ASX to pay $2.0 million (AUD 3 million) toward the Australian Securities and Investments Commission's legal costs, bringing another chapter of the long-running project to a close, though not one likely to be forgotten quickly.
The work of fighting money laundering has always invited a certain temptation: to mistake the existence of controls for the existence of control. Japan's Financial Services Agency is now pushing firmly against that instinct. In its latest assessment of anti-money laundering, counter-terrorist financing and financial crime efforts, the regulator makes clear that the question facing financial institutions is no longer whether they have built the necessary frameworks. It is whether those frameworks can withstand contact with the world as it actually is.
The Federal Trade Commission announced that Hopper has agreed to pay $35 million to settle allegations that they charged consumers fees without their informed consent while misleading users about the cost of bookings and the benefits of some of the company's paid services. The proposed settlement also bars the company from deceiving consumers about fees and requires it to clearly disclose the total price of goods and services, the fees and charges associated with them, and the final amount consumers will pay before completing a transaction.
The European Securities and Markets Authority has fined Moody's Deutschland €2.145 million after finding the firm committed four breaches of the Credit Rating Agencies Regulation by failing to provide complete, accurate and up-to-date data. The regulator also issued a public notice alongside the financial penalty.
Alibaba had policies forbidding merchants from selling illegal pharmaceuticals, listed chemicals and pharmaceutical counterfeiting equipment through its marketplaces. Employees questioned whether those policies were working. Merchants found ways around them. Some shifted conversations into Alibaba's private messaging system before directing buyers to encrypted third-party platforms. Others continued operating even after concerns had been identified. According to the U.S. Department of Justice, the controls never kept pace with the activity they were supposed to stop. That failure has now produced one of the largest corporate resolutions involving online marketplace compliance.