Compliance & Ethics

FTC Puts Companies on Notice Over Suspected Fake Review Practices

The Federal Trade Commission is sending a message to companies that play fast and loose with online reviews. FTC staff issued warning letters to 10 companies, flagging potential violations of the agency’s relatively new Consumer Review Rule, which targets fake, misleading, and manipulated product reviews.

Italy Fines Ryanair More Than €255 Million Over Treatment of Travel Agencies

Italy’s competition watchdog has hit Ryanair with a €255.76 million fine, jointly and severally with its parent Ryanair Holdings plc, after concluding that the airline abused its dominant position in the market for passenger air transport services to and from Italy.

FinCEN Turns Data Into Action as Treasury Tightens the Net on Money Laundering

The U.S. Treasury is leaning harder into data, technology, and coordination as it steps up efforts to disrupt money laundering tied to organized crime and cross-border networks. This week, the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network announced a sweeping, data-driven operation focused on money services businesses operating along the southwest border, which is an initiative that shows how aggressively the department is now using financial intelligence to drive enforcement.

SFO & Five Eyes Publish New Guidance on Indicators of Foreign Bribery

Foreign bribery cases rarely begin with a single, obvious act. They tend to surface through patterns, unusual secrecy, opaque ownership structures, and contracts that don’t quite add up. That reality is at the heart of new guidance released this week by the Serious Fraud Office and its Five Eyes law-enforcement partners.

Saudi Central Bank Moves to Consolidate Finance Company Rules

The Saudi Central Bank has rolled out an updated Implementing Regulation of the Finance Companies Control Law, sharpening the rules that govern how finance companies operate across the Kingdom and folding several legacy frameworks into a more unified regulatory structure.

Retailer Fined $9.4 Million Over Non-Compliant Button Battery Products

Australian fashion retailer City Beach has been ordered to pay about $9.4 million (AUD 14 million) in penalties after the Federal Court of Australia found it supplied tens of thousands of products that failed to meet mandatory button battery safety and information standards.

FTC Takes Aim at No-Hire Agreements Locking Building Workers in Place

The Federal Trade Commission moved again this week to dismantle labor practices it says quietly box workers into lower pay and fewer options, ordering Adamas Amenity Services to stop enforcing no-hire agreements that regulators say restricted job mobility across New Jersey and New York City.