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The Morning Risk Report: Facebook Hit With New Antitrust Suit From Federal Trade Commission
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Facebook is facing pressure from regulators who allege the tech giant has engaged in unlawful anticompetitive behavior, which the company denies.
PHOTO: JOHN G. MABANGLO/EPA/SHUTTERSTOCK
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The Federal Trade Commission filed a new version of its antitrust lawsuit against Facebook Inc. on Thursday, seeking to jump-start its case with bolstered allegations the company is abusing a monopoly position in social media.
The FTC voted 3-2 along party lines to file the amended lawsuit, with Chairwoman Lina Khan participating in the agency’s deliberations and supporting the new complaint. The commission denied Facebook’s request that Ms. Khan, a Democrat, be recused because of her past criticism of big technology companies.
[Continued below...]
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The FTC’s amended complaint comes after a federal judge in June dismissed the agency’s original lawsuit, saying it didn’t make sufficient allegations to support claims Facebook engaged in unlawful monopolization.
With its new, 80-page lawsuit, the FTC seeks to tell a longer, more detailed story about why it believes Facebook is a dominant force that uses its power to hobble any rival that might threaten its market position.
The FTC’s core allegations remain the same as its original complaint from December: that Facebook unlawfully sought to suppress competition by buying up potential rivals such as the messaging platform WhatsApp and image-sharing app Instagram. The commission is seeking to unwind those deals.
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Risk & Compliance Forum Survey
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We’re conducting a survey of compliance professionals about the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic and the reopening of the economy, with findings due to be presented at the WSJ Risk & Compliance Forum on Oct. 12. If you work in a compliance-related role, we’d love to hear from you via this survey link.
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The individuals accumulated about $3 million in profit from trading confidential information about subscriber growth, the complaint says.
PHOTO: BING GUAN/BLOOMBERG NEWS
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Three former Netflix Inc. software engineers and two of their close associates were charged with insider trading, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission said Wednesday.
According to the civil complaint, the individuals accumulated about $3 million in profit from trading confidential information about Netflix’s subscriber growth, a crucial metric used in the company’s quarterly earnings announcement.
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Chinese financial regulators summoned senior executives of troubled real-estate developer China Evergrande Group to a meeting on Thursday, and said the company needs to resolve its debt issues without destabilizing the property and financial markets.
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The European Union’s executive arm said it was opening a probe into Illumina Inc.’s decision to complete its $7.1 billion purchase of Grail Inc. despite an ongoing antitrust investigation.
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Manhattan prosecutors are moving to advance their criminal investigation into former President Donald Trump’s business affairs, fighting with his company over evidence and continuing talks with the lawyer of a Trump Organization executive who hasn’t been charged, said people familiar with the matter.
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Former SEC Chairman Jay Clayton Joins Cryptocurrency Platform's Advisory Board
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Jay Clayton, the former chairman of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, has joined cryptocurrency custody platform Fireblocks Inc. as an adviser.
Fireblocks, which focuses on institutional clients in the financial sector, said Mr. Clayton’s decades of experience in international financial markets would help it navigate the evolving regulatory landscape for digital assets.
Mr. Clayton, who was nominated to lead the SEC by President Trump in 2017, left the agency at the end of 2020. He has returned to law firm Sullivan & Cromwell LLP, where he was a longtime corporate deals lawyer, as a senior policy adviser and of counsel.
Fireblocks builds for clients platforms for digital-asset custody, transfer and settlement, including "wallets" for banks—programs that store cryptographic keys for account holders.
“I share Fireblocks view that digital asset custody requires the same level of service as traditional custody while also striving for better regulatory outcomes in security, certainty and resiliency,” Mr. Clayton said in a statement.
The appointment is the latest hiring of former regulators by financial-technology and digital-asset companies as they face increasing regulatory scrutiny. Current SEC Chairman Gary Gensler said earlier this month that the SEC would regulate cryptocurrency markets to the maximum extent possible using its existing authority, while also calling on Congress to grant the agency more scope and resources to oversee the sector.
—Mengqi Sun
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Walt Disney Co. is among the companies that have hired Verite to consult on Chinese labor issues. The Shanghai Disneyland theme park in June.
PHOTO: QILAI SHEN/BLOOMBERG NEWS
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Chinese authorities have shut down a U.S. labor auditor’s local China partner, escalating Beijing’s campaign to counter forced-labor allegations in its northwest Xinjiang region and potentially complicating efforts by multinationals to certify supply chains in the country.
China-based Shenzhen Verite, which is affiliated with U.S. labor rights nonprofit Verite Inc., was closed following an April raid on its offices by Chinese security forces, according to people with knowledge of the matter.
Though Verite was a small player in China’s auditing industry, companies including Walt Disney Co. and Apple Inc. have hired the Amherst, Mass.-based company to consult on labor issues at Chinese factories.
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China has passed one of the strictest data privacy laws in the world. The sweeping privacy law will curb wide-ranging data collection by technology companies, but policy analysts say it is unlikely to limit the state’s widespread use of surveillance.
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June was the hottest month on record in the continental U.S., and July was the hottest month on Earth since record-keeping began 141 years ago, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Scientists say extreme heat has worsened as a result of climate change.
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The Taliban faced new defiance Thursday against their takeover of Afghanistan and dispersed peaceful protesters with deadly force, while the U.S. said diplomats were arriving at Kabul’s airport to clear out the backlog of Afghans and U.S. citizens seeking to flee the country.
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This summer, amid a rebound in domestic travel, the volume of travelers acting poorly has jumped, adding pressure on carriers and employees. The Federal Aviation Administration has pledged to take a more aggressive approach to pursuing punishments for passengers who flout safety rules.
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T-Mobile said attackers stole personal data from nearly 48 million people, including 7.8 million current postpaid customers and about 40 million former and prospective customers who applied for plans.
PHOTO: DAVID PAUL MORRIS/BLOOMBERG NEWS
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The breach of T-Mobile US Inc. enabled hackers to steal information about more than 40 million people and potentially sell the data to digital fraudsters and identity thieves.
Here is what we know about the hack, which data was stolen and what customers should do to protect themselves.
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What was the T-Mobile data breach?
T-Mobile said it learned late last week that an individual in an online forum claimed to have breached its systems and was attempting to sell stolen customer data. The company confirmed on Aug. 16 that it was hacked, adding the following day that attackers made off with personal data from nearly 48 million people. Those victims include 7.8 million current postpaid customers, T-Mobile said, and about 40 million former and prospective customers who applied for plans.
Get more answers to your questions on the T-Mobile breach here.
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Taylor Farms CEO Bruce Taylor believes vaccines are a miracle, but is reluctant to mandate them companywide. Photograph by Brian L. Frank for The Wall Street Journal.
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In a sprawling food processing plant on the outskirts of Nashville, Tenn., Jon Matthews is expected to be everywhere. He oversees one million pounds of produce that flow into the plant daily to be sliced and separated into salads and sandwiches.
For months, Mr. Matthews’s employer, produce giant Taylor Farms, has been engaged in an all-hands effort to cajole its 22,000 employees to be vaccinated against Covid-19, offering on-site vaccination clinics and cash incentives. The company founder, Bruce Taylor, recorded a public-service announcement that plays in the hallways, employees said.
Mr. Matthews, 50, is among the many unpersuaded. The inventory supervisor is uncomfortable with the novel technology behind the vaccines and remains unconvinced it will protect him from infection, particularly in light of the Delta variant, which appears to break through faster than earlier strains.
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Democrats are set to gain control over the nation’s derivatives-market regulator after one of the two Republicans on the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, Brian Quintenz, departs at the end of this month.
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