Compliance & Ethics

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.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has reopened its online Guidance Portal, reviving a Trump-era transparency tool that had been taken offline during the Biden-Harris Administration. Announced on August 13, the relaunched site serves as a centralized hub for guidance documents across the agency’s environmental programs, covering areas such as air quality, water protection, and hazardous waste management.

Zelle promised speed, convenience, and the comforting seal of “backed by the banks.” For many users, it delivered something else entirely, a direct pipeline for scammers to siphon away hard-earned money, with little hope of getting it back.

A Federal Court in Australia has recently ordered National Australia Bank (NAB) and its subsidiary, AFSH Nominees Pty Ltd (AFSH), to pay a combined $15.5 million in penalties after failing to meet legal obligations to customers facing financial hardship.

Liberty Mutual has agreed to pay back $4.7 million in profits to the U.S. government to settle a Foreign Corrupt Practices Act case involving bribes in India, a resolution that’s as much about politics and policy shifts in Washington as it is about corporate compliance in Mumbai.

When Congress rolled out the Paycheck Protection Program in the early, chaotic days of the pandemic, the intent was simple: get cash to struggling American businesses fast enough to keep people on payrolls. What it wasn’t designed for was multinational auto parts suppliers backed by the government of the People’s Republic of China.

Match Group, the company behind Match.com, OkCupid, PlentyOfFish, The League, and other dating platforms, will pay $14 million and make sweeping changes to its business practices to settle Federal Trade Commission charges that it misled consumers and made it unnecessarily difficult to cancel subscriptions.