Tag: Fines (Penalties)

The Many Challenges Facing Apple

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For more than a decade, Apple could do almost no wrong. The iPhone made it the world’s most valuable company. The App Store helped launch businesses such as Uber and Airbnb. And the company’s new products made it a player in health, Hollywood and finance. Now, the difficulties are piling up. The Justice Department filed an antitrust lawsuit against Apple on Thursday for giving its own products advantages that it deprived rivals of having. The suit is the latest in a series of actions brought against the company by regulators…

China Evergrande Founder Accused of Exaggerating Revenue by $78 Billion

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China Evergrande Group exaggerated its revenue by more than $78 billion and committed securities fraud over two years before its spectacular collapse in 2021, a top Chinese regulator said. The China Securities Regulatory Commission accused Hui Ka Yan, the founder of Evergrande, of “making decisions and organizing fraud,” the company reported in a filing to the Shanghai and Shenzhen stock exchanges on Monday night. Mr. Hui was fined $6.5 million and banned from China’s financial markets for life. Xia Haijun, a former chief executive, was fined $2 million and also…

TikTok Fined by European Union for Mishandling Child Data

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TikTok was fined roughly $370 million on Friday by European Union regulators for having weak safeguards to protect the personal information of children using the platform, a sign of increased scrutiny facing the social media service. TikTok’s default setting did not adequately protect children’s privacy, nor was the company transparent in explaining what it was doing with the data of users age 17 and younger, according to Ireland’s Data Protection Commission, which issued the penalty on behalf of the European Union. The fine of 345 million euros is the first…

China Hits Ant Group with $985 Million Fine

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Chinese authorities announced a fine of nearly $1 billion for financial technology firm Ant Group on Friday, nearly three years after regulators halted the company’s plan for a record-breaking public offering that ushered in a period of intense government scrutiny of technology firms. The fine announced by China’s top securities regulator is seen as a sign that the authorities are wrapping up investigations into technology firms, bringing to a close a period of tough regulation for the industry. Officials said earlier this year that they would start to relax oversight…

China Fines Comedy Company $2 Million For ‘Insulting’ the Military

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Beijing fined a Chinese comedy studio around $2 million on Wednesday for a joke that compared China’s military to stray dogs, a reminder of the ever-narrowing confines of expression under the country’s leader, Xi Jinping. The Beijing Municipal Culture and Tourism Bureau accused a popular comedian, Li Haoshi, who is employed by the studio, of “severely insulting” the People’s Liberation Army, China’s military, during two live performances in Beijing on Saturday. The authority said his joke had a “vile societal impact.” “We will not allow any company or individual to…

China Fines Meituan $530 Million in Second Tech Antitrust Case

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China fined the food-delivery giant Meituan $530 million for antitrust violations on Friday, the second major penalty this year in Beijing’s efforts to bring the country’s big internet companies to heel. The government’s campaign has been blessed by the highest levels of the Communist Party leadership. It has involved a wide cast of regulatory agencies and policymaking bodies. And it has wiped out hundreds of billions of dollars in wealth for shareholders of some of China’s — and the world’s — most successful tech businesses. Like regulators and politicians in…