Yesterday, an Employment Tribunal in the UK ruled on the country’s first employment discrimination case involving a worker fired for being too young. The Tribunal sided with 20-year-old Megan Thomas, a former membership secretary at the Eight Members Club in London.  Ms. Thomas complained that her boss

While Neelie Kroes and the hard-hitting men and women of the European Commission are busy bruising up large corporations with fines for antitrust violations, it seems the United States is involved in its own crackdown. They’re on a mission to remind everyone that the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act doesn’t just apply to American

Okay, we love this story. Corruption is rampant in Sweden as police officer demands fruitcake in exchange for solving case of the missing trombone! Ethisphere readers know all about the pervasive problems of bribery and corruption in hotspots around the world such as China (bad), Russia (badder) and Nigeria (baddest).  But who would have known [...]

The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA), an independent body created by the U.K.’s advertising industry to self-regulate the rules in the advertising codes, has discovered many companies are advertising unproven claims of environmental sustainability.

The French government outlawed the use of Blackberry devices used to send and receive emails earlier this year because of fears that other countries’ security agencies will pick up the transmissions, French newspaper Le Monde reported.

Thomas Barnett, the head of the Department of Justice’s Antitrust Division who was recently thrust in the spotlight for his protest of the EU decision to throw out Microsoft’s antitrust appeal, further explained his position during a recent speech at Georgetown University.

In 2007 the European Commission issed the largest fine in the EU’s history- a whopping €990 million (that’s $1.3 billion, folks). In spite of recent criticism, an EC spokesman revealed that the Commission intends to continue increasing fines. As EC spokesman Jonathan Todd explained, the Commission has “increased the level of fines . . . [...]

Paradigm BV, a provider of “enterprise software solutions” to the oil and natural gas industry, entered into an agreement with the Department of Justice (DOJ) yesterday regarding Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) violations. Illegal payments Paradigm made to China, Indonesia, Kazakhstan, Mexico and Nigeria were self-reported to the Department of Justice by the company through [...]

London based Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP), a non-profit organization dedicated to increasing awareness on global climate change, released their annual Climate Disclosure Leadership Index (CDLI) today. The list, compiled from responses to a questionnaire CDP sent to over 2400 companies worldwide, compares FT 500 companies in each sector on how transparent they are on regarding [...]

After Microsoft’s sound legal defeat at the hands of the EU’s Court of First Instance on Monday, experts debate the future impact and role of the European Commission (EC) in world business. The conflict stretches from legal experts in support of the ruling to U.S. government officials such as Thomas Barnett, the Assistant Attorney General [...]

A new study released today by Ethical Investment Research Service (EIRIS) revealed that, despite recent high profile abuses, U.S. companies still lag behind their European counterparts when it comes to doing business ethically. However, businesses have significantly improved corporate social responsibility (CSR) across the globe today than 25 years ago, the study says. As report [...]

A British businessman and two Ikea managers pleaded guilty on Sept. 7 to charges dealing with bribery. Adam David Hauxwell-Smith, owner of Godfrey and Warner Ltd, a company that sold items such as potpourri, candles and picture frames to Ikea, admitted to giving £648,000 to John Brown, a purchaser for Ikea, and £243,437 to Paul [...]

A new study commissioned by the Food Standards Agency, an independent UK government department established to protect public health, found that certain artificial colors and additives in food can lead to hyperactivity disorder in children. It’s believed that the new study will pressure the food and drink industry to remove certain artificial colors and additives [...]

The European Federation of Wine and Spirits Importers and Distributors (EFWSID) raised complaints with The European Commission on Thursday over the lack of competition in glass bottle manufacturing. The EFWSID believes a lack of competition has caused the price of glass bottles to increase. The Belgian Federation of Wine and Spirits, a member of the [...]

Earlier this week, The Observer’s Good Companies Guide unveiled its list of the UK’s top 20 firms in the Financial Times Stock Exchange (FTSE) 350 index, based on social, environmental and corporate governance criteria. The little-known Speedy Hire, an equipment rental company, made the top spot on the list for what The Observer described as [...]

Textron has agreed to pay $4.6 million in fines for bribing officials of Suddam Hussein’s government in order to acquire Iraqi contracts through the United Nations’ Oil-for-Food program. The fines are divided into the amounts of $1.15 million and $3.5 million between the Department of Justice and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, respectively. The [...]

The Competition Commission recently demanded confidential information from supermarket chains Tesco and Asda in the form of emails delivered to their suppliers. The demand comes in conjunction with an investigation alleging the two companies exerted ‘undue pressure’ on suppliers. Asda alone released 11 million emails to the Commission. The Commission announced last January that there [...]

In hopes of setting the standard in its industry, banking powerhouse Barclays recently began a new trend in corporate responsibility. This will include screening £1.5 billion in supplier expenditures. The company introduced a “corporate responsibility supplier questionnaire” last year with a goal of ensuring that Barclays “engages with the right suppliers and that they have [...]

Italy’s antitrust authority has fined Bristol-Myers Squibb $3.2 million for illegal collusion with competitors in the colostomy bag market (competitors Coloplast SpA, Hollister SpA, and B Braun Milano SpA were also fined lesser amounts for similar anti-competitive behaviour). At issue is that the four companies (which control 95% of the colostomy bag market in the [...]

EU regulators said Thursday that they had charged makers of an industrial bleach (sodium chlorate) with illegal price-fixing and running a cartel. Sodium chlorate is mainly used as a bleaching agent in the pulp and paper sector. Both Finland’s Kemira Oyj and Netherlands-based Akzo Nobel NV confirmed that they had received the charges. If found [...]

Two months ago, we noted that British Airways (BA) had set aside $700 million in anticipation of fines from the U.S. Department of Justice on the heels of price-fixing and illegal collusion investigations (as well as to pay for editing to James Bond movies). Now the price has come in and BA and Korean Air [...]

In a stunning surprise to most, coated-paper maker Stora Enso North America Corp. has been acquitted of price-fixing in a federal jury trial in Connecticut. The company had been indicted by DOJ in December 2006 on charges of conspiring with competitors to fix coated magazine paper prices during 2002-03. Stora’s North American division is a [...]

Swiss-based engineering group ABB announced this week that it may have violated the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) anti-bribery law after discovering suspect payments made by some employees overseas. ABB said the probe is uncovering payments of concern made in Asia, South America, and Europe (with a particular focus on Italy). The company disclosed [...]

Delta & Pine Co. (a cotton seed producer) has reached a settlement with the SEC to pay $300,000 over charges that it illegally bribed Turkish government officials in order to get documentation that reportedly would allow the company to operate in the country. According to the SEC, Delta & Pine (which has since been acquired [...]

We’ll start in Europe, where regulators decided to bring antitrust charges against Intel, the world’s largest computer chip maker. This capped a six-year investigation into allegations of illegal discounts to personal computer makers. If determined to be guilty, Intel faces up a fine of up to 10% of its European sales during the period of [...]