The state of Georgia has levied a record $5 million fine against a Louisiana-based marketing company that violated the state’s Fair Business Practices Actsent when they sent deceptive mailings in an attempt to bring customers to local car dealerships. In announcing the fines against the Smart Automotive Group, the Governor’s Office of Consumer Affairs accused [...]

The French competition regulator, Conseil de la Concurrence, has fined the country’s three mobile telephone companies (Orange France, FranC’aise du Radiot, and Bouygues Telecom SA) a total of $631 million for illegally restricting competition. Investigators found that between 1997 and 2003, the operators regularly exchanged information about new and canceled contracts and used this information [...]

Verizon Wireless could find itself paying more than $8 million to settle claims that it violated the Telephone Consumer Protection Act and sent out over 10,000 junk faxes to business in Louisiana, Florida and Alabama. While this case (one of about a dozen of its kind against Verizon) has been settled for $6 million, the [...]

As reported in the Associated Press, a Honda car dealership in New Mexico is in trouble after hiring a direct-mail marketing company which sent out 50,000 scratch-off tickets to local residents as part of a promotion. One of the 50,000 tickets was supposed to be a $1,000 grand prize winner. The problem? A typo and [...]

TRACE International, a non-profit membership association (and important partner of the Ethisphere Council) that helps companies combat bribery, announced the creation of a new database that can help businesses track the prevalence of bribery attempts and requests. This new online tool, called BRIBEline, is backed by many leading organizations and companies such as Wal-Mart, International [...]

In-N-Out Burger has filed a trademark infringement lawsuit against the Utah burger chain, Chadder’s (which is owned by the American Fork Company). In-N-Out is claiming that Chadder’s is copying its business operations too closely – like In-N-Out, Chadder’s has a “secret menu” and also uses similar red, white and yellow signage. The OC Register covered [...]

According to media reports, the Coca-Cola Co. has filed a criminal complaint against executives of French food and drink maker Danone, as well as its PR firm Euro RSCG. In this complaint, the company accuses them of orchestrating a smear campaign against Coke’s Dasani water brand in the Argentinian market – a violation of the [...]

French company Carrefour SA, the second-largest retailer in the world behind Wal-Mart, has been fined $2.7 million by a French regional court for: below-cost selling in certain situations; illegal collusion with suppliers; advertising prices on products which were later not sold at that price in the stores; promoting products with special prices, but not having [...]

A federal judge has ruled that pharmaceutical companies AstraZeneca, Schering-Plough Corp. and Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. engaged in unfair and deceptive trade practices regarding some of their drug prices. The three companies, along with Johnson & Johnson, were defendants in a suit that alleged they inflated the average wholesale prices (AWP) that they reported and which [...]

According to recent media reports, the fraud investigation into the BAE Systems over bribery charges was pulled by the government over safety concerns. British newspaper The Daily Mail obtained legal documents under the Freedom of Information Act which covered a meeting between Britain’s ambassador to Saudi Arabia (Sir Sherard Cowper-Coles) who told the director of [...]

The Supreme Court of Canada ruled in a 6-3 vote this past week to toss out a Quebec class-action lawsuit against Dell Computer over incorrect prices that were mistakenly posted online. A Montreal man, Olivier Dumoulin, had filed suit against Dell because the company refused to honor the lower prices for Axim handheld personal digital [...]

Jazz Pharmaceuticals, Inc. has agreed to pay $20 million in penalties and victim compensation to resolve parallel criminal and civil investigations conducted by the DOJ relating to the illegal marketing practices of its wholly-owned subsidiary Orphan Medical, Inc. (Orphan). As part of this resolution, Orphan pleaded guilty to felony misbranding in violation of the Food, [...]

AOL has agreed to pay $3 million and change its customer services practices as part of a settlement with 48 states and the District of Columbia over customer complaints over the process of trying to cancel an online account. AOL didn’t acknowledge any wrongdoing in the settlement. California was among the states that played a [...]

Bargain shoppers beware: those money-saving deals might be a little harder to come by in the future. Thanks to a recent overturn of a century-old antitrust law by the Supreme Court, a product’s “suggested retail price” is no longer just a suggestion. The original precedent, set in 1911, made it illegal for manufacturers and retailers [...]

As reported in the UK’s Guardian and BBC News, global cosmetics giant L’Oréal and its outside employment services firm Adecco were found guilty last week of racial discrimination after they sought to exclude non-white women from promoting a line of shampoo. The French campaign group SOS Racisme brought the case against the Garnier division of [...]

Just after being ordered to cut a $2.3 million check for a sex discrimination lawsuit, banking giant UBS is looking at even more trouble ahead. Regulators in the State of Massachusetts have accused UBS of “dishonest” and “unethical” practices in their dealing with hedge fund advisors (and by “dishonest and unethical practices,” they mean “bribery”). [...]

New Jersey U.S. Attorney Christopher Christie announced that the unusually exhaustive two-year deferred prosecution agreement (DPA) against Bristol-Myers Squibb has come to a close, and the company will not face federal charges for channel stuffing. Bristol-Myers is certainly celebrating, as this particular DPA process was more painstaking than usual: federal prosecutors attended Board of Directors [...]

According to media reports, another oilfield services provider, Global Industries Ltd, is conducting an internal investigation into possible illegal payments in its West African operations. Specifically the company is looking into a subsidiary’s reimbursement of certain expenses incurred by a customs agent in connection with shipments of materials and the temporary importation of vessels into [...]

On what must have been a slow news day in Detroit, FoxNews is reporting about a Michigan woman who is suing Starbursts’ parent company, Mars Inc. for more than $25,000 for “permanent personal injuries” she claims she sustained after biting into one of their yellow candies in 2005. The “victim”, Victoria McArthur of Romero, Mich., [...]

As the Times in the U.K. reports… GLG Partners, the £10 billion London-based hedge fund, has been hit with its second insider trading fine from the French financial regulator, Autorité des Marchés Financiers (AMF) , within the past six months. Underscoring the severity of the misconduct, this was the largest fine that AMF could have [...]

Abbott Laboratories Inc. has sued a French AIDS group for staging what the pharmaceutical and medical products maker says was a cyber attack against its Web site back in April. Abbott spokeswoman Jennifer Smoter said the cyberattack disrupted the company’s Web site for hours April 26 on the eve of its annual meeting. “We don’t [...]

McDonald’s has decided to use its Shrek movie tie-in to feature healthier food items. Shrek will be featured on its salads, milk, apple slices and other products introduced in the last three years as the burger chain tries to combat mounting criticism that its food is contributing to the obesity epidemic in both kids and [...]

Marks & Spencer has made quite a splash in announcing a detailed plan to do business “more ethically”. M & S’s announcement was met with a flurry of press, including a thorough piece from the BBC. At the core is a 100-point five-year plan to re-engineer itself to become a carbon neutral, zero-waste-to-landfill, ethical-trading, sustainable-sourcing, [...]

Yesterday a California jury ordered Prudential Insurance to pay Darla Johnson $14 million in punitive damages on top of $1.5 million it awarded Johnson last week in compensatory damages to cover benefits the company had refused to pay. Johnson, 49, who suffers from chronic fatigue, lupus, fibromyalgia and an immune system disorder, spent much of [...]

Taiwan regulators have buzzed ointment brand Burt’s Bees with a nearly $20,000 fine for false advertising, the nation’s fair trade regulators said yesterday. The Taiwan Fair Trade Commission said the company had claimed in advertisements its herbal insect repellent was the only product of its type that could be directly applied to human skin. The [...]