The China's Commerce Ministry has slapped a fine on a joint venture (JV) between Microsoft Corporation and its Chinese partner BesTV in Xbox game console venture for breaking antitrust laws. However, the Redmond-based global IT major has escaped from a major penalty as the investigation didn't find any major fault on the part of Microsoft over market competition rules. The investigation on Xbox marketing drive revealed that Microsoft didn't obstruct the free market competition. The Chinese Commerce Ministry has imposed a penalty of Yuan 200,000 ($31,430) on Microsoft JV firm in China.
Legal & Regulatory
$10,000 fine for drones near air show during Fleet Week
The San Francisco Police Department and the Federal Aviation Administration will be working hand in hand to ban drones while imposing a $10,000 fine for offenders during the 2015 Fleet Week which is set to happen this weekend.
US firms stash $2.1tn overseas to skip tax at home
The US companies are keeping their profits made overseas out of the homeland in order to avoid taxes. It's estimated that 500 large US companies are holding over $2.1 trillion accumulated profits overseas to avoid taxes. These companies have to shell out $620billion by paying US taxes to repatriate the funds.
Global regulators hike capital requirement for big insurers by 10%
As the world is heading towards global economic uncertainty, regulators have agreed on a new term to make sure the industry will continue to stay strong. Companies are required to hold more capital under this new terms to avoid taxpayer from bailing out in case of any crisis in the future.
No role of nationality in antitrust probe: EU antitrust chief
Ruling out North America's claim that European antitrust authority is going in an anti-US bias in dealing with Google and Apple, the European Competition Commissioner (ECC) Margrethe Vestager has termed it as a misleading notion of the world's largest economy. Vestager has been criticized in the US media for her role in opening multiple cases against the US corporate giants Google, Apple, Amazon and Starbucks during the past one year. Vestager has become the target of the US media as European regulators are protecting EU companies from the US competition.
Latest News
The trust that manages the $41 Billion Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation filed a lawsuit last Thursday that alleged the widespread corruption at the oil company and which was largely ignored by the auditor. This resulted to the charitable organization's loss of tens of millions of dollars.
Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI), the Indian stock markets regulator, has imposed a heavy fine of $1.1 billion (INR 72.7bn) on New Delhi-based real estate firm PACL Ltd for illegally raising funds to the tune of INR491 bn from the market. Sebi has further directed PACL Ltd to cough up the fine amount within 45 days from the order date. The fine amount is the biggest penalty so far that SEBI imposed on any company.
German automaker Volkswagen Group is under scrutiny after it was found by the U.S Clean Air Group that some of its cars did not pass the standard emission test. The test conducted by Peter Mock and John German revealed another scandal - the use of "defeat device" software in its cars.
The federal court ordered Samsung to halt older version of its smartphones for breaching Apple's patent. It was found that Samsung was guilty of copyright infringement filed by Apple. But the features included in the case were no longer used by Samsung.
Berkeley's wage is set to rise to $19 by the year 2020, however, business owners oppose the proposal saying it will put their business at risk a that will eventually lead to closure. While activists and unions struggle for a $15 wage hike, Berkeley ha a proposal of $19 per hour by the year 2020. This would offer workers more of a living wage.
Fiat Chrysler Automobiles and the United Auto Workers union reached a new agreement regarding the company's health care and salary system including the 2-tier pay. The new term was discussed after some 40, 000 of the company's worker threaten to go for a strike that could potentially put the production on halt.
The FAA and other security agencies are appealing to people, local or visitors not to bring drones during the papal visits for security measures. There has been a plot to the holy man's life by a minor brainwashed by the terrorist group ISIL prompting officials and securities restrictions on all actions regarding the safety of Pope Francis.
The Swiss bank Credit Suisse Group AG will have to shell out $80 million in fines and disgorgement to the US regulators in an alternative trading-related settlement case. Credit Suisse didn't reveal its operations in dark pool private share trading exchange to the clients.
Four major banks -- Bank of New York Mellon, Deutsche Bank, Credit Suisse and Goldman Sachs -- have reached an agreement with New York State's Department of Financial Services (DFS) over record keeping for the Symphony messaging system.
