The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has secured a default judgment against Adamant Stone Limited after alleging the purported investment adviser built its regulatory profile on claims it could not support.
For two years, according to federal prosecutors, the business model at Access DX Laboratory rested on finding more patients, ordering more genetic tests, and billing the government. The methods, the Justice Department alleges, included paying marketers for referrals, compensating telemedicine providers for fraudulent physician orders, breaking genetic tests into separately billable components, and sending Medicare and Medicaid the bill for testing that was not medically necessary. That alleged scheme has now produced a $36.4 million resolution.
In a 6-3 decision, the court ruled that President Donald Trump lawfully removed Federal Trade Commissioner Rebecca Kelly Slaughter in March 2025 without citing any statutory cause, overturning the core holding of Humphrey's Executor v. United States, the 1935 decision that had long shielded members of independent commissions from at-will dismissal. The ruling dramatically expands presidential authority over agencies that Congress intentionally designed to operate with a degree of independence from the White House.
The Australian Energy Regulator spent much of the past year following the money. It traced overcharges to Centrepay customers, questioned whether vulnerable households had been properly protected, examined how retailers treated customers struggling to pay their bills, and looked closely at what happened when obligations designed to shield people from harm became little more than words on paper.
When Microsoft folded Copilot into its Microsoft 365 subscriptions last year, the change arrived quietly enough. Existing customers on Personal and Family plans suddenly found themselves with new AI features at no extra cost for the remainder of their subscriptions. The real decision came later, when renewal notices began arriving and the free addition became a more expensive default.
The President of the Office of Competition and Consumer Protection (UOKiK) has opened proceedings against Columbus Energy, one of Poland's best-known renewable energy installers, over allegations that the information consumers received before signing a contract, the way the company described their right to withdraw, and the time some customers waited to recover their money after exercising that right.
On Tuesday, the Australian Federal Court ordered Harvey Norman Holdings and Latitude Finance Australia to pay a combined $35.9 million (AUD $55 million) after finding they engaged in misleading conduct and made false or misleading representations in a nationwide advertising campaign that ran between January 2020 and August 2021. Harvey Norman was ordered to pay $22.8 million (AUD $35 million), while Latitude was ordered to pay $13.1 million (AUD $20 million). According to the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC), the combined penalty is among the largest it has secured in a case involving misleading conduct related to financial products and services.