Allied Stone, a Dallas-based supplier of countertops and cabinetry, has agreed to pay $12.4 million alongside its president, Jia “Jerry” Lim, to resolve allegations that they skirted U.S. trade laws by dodging duties on Chinese quartz imports.
European Central Bank (ECB) President Christine Lagarde has urged lawmakers not to dilute the EU’s Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD), warning that watering down requirements would undermine the bloc’s ability to manage financial risks tied to climate change.
For Allianz Life, July ended with a gut punch. The U.S. insurance giant admitted that hackers had slipped into one of its cloud-stored customer databases and made off with personal details belonging to most of its 1.4 million customers. The company didn’t say exactly how many were hit, but the independent breach notification site Have I Been Pwned filled in the blank this week: 1.1 million.
Fans who have stared at a frozen Ticketmaster page only to see “sold out” flashing back minutes later know the frustration. Now, the Federal Trade Commission says that frustration wasn’t always bad luck. It was, at least in part, the work of a Maryland-based ticket broker accused of gaming the system on a massive scale.
Qantas Airways has been hit with a record penalty of $58.6 million (AUD 90 million) after illegally sacking nearly 2,000 ground staff during the COVID-19 pandemic, a decision that a Federal Court judge said was more about protecting profits than people.
California’s ambitious climate disclosure laws just dodged a major legal roadblock. On August 13, 2025, a federal judge in Los Angeles refused to press pause on the state’s landmark Climate Corporate Data Accountability Act (SB 253) and Climate-Related Financial Risk Act (SB 261). Translation: businesses caught by these rules should brace themselves, the countdown to 2026 compliance is officially on.
Google has admitted to engaging in anti-competitive conduct in Australia, following a long-running investigation by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC). The tech giant acknowledged that, between December 2019 and March 2021, it reached restrictive agreements with Telstra and Optus requiring that Android phones sold by the carriers only pre-install Google Search, shutting out rival providers.