A New York federal bankruptcy judge provisionally approved an opioid settlement plan on Wednesday that will dissolve Purdue Pharma and require members of the Sackler family (which owns Purdue) to “turn over billions of their fortune to address the deadly opioid epidemic.” But the agreement will controversially “absolve[]” the Sacklers of most Purdue opioid-related liability and will instead leave them one of the wealthiest families in the world - NYTimes and WSJ and Bloomberg and Law360 and MarketWatch
Justice Department antitrust officials are reportedly readying a “second monopoly lawsuit against Alphabet Inc.’s Google over the company’s advertising business” that could be on file by the end of 2021 - Bloomberg and NYTimes
Meanwhile, Apple’s latest effort to avoid similar scrutiny (focused on its outsized App Store power and control) will see it allowing certain media apps—think Netflix and Spotify—to “create in-app links to sign-up pages” and “bypass the iPhone maker’s cut of subscriptions.” The change will take effect in early 2022 - WSJ and Bloomberg and TechCrunch
EU regulators have fined Facebook some $270 million for “failing to tell the bloc’s residents enough about what it does with their data” in its WhatsApp chat service. The ruling gives Zuck & Co. three months to “bring its communications with users” into compliance with relevant GDPR provisions and is the “latest in a wave of enforcement from EU regulators . . . after activists have complained that Europe’s application of GDPR has been too slow and weak” - WSJ and Bloomberg and MarketWatch
More disappointment for Paramount Pictures (and hardcore Maverick fans). The studio “scrapped a planned to release a much-anticipated “Top-Gun” sequel in theaters in November” based on Covid uncertainty and are instead shooting for May 2022 - NYTimes and Bloomberg and HuffPost
NHiTSA officials have ordered Tesla to “hand over a trove of data on its Autopilot driver-assistance system as part of an investigation into Tesla cars crashing into fire trucks or other emergency vehicles parked on roads and highways.” The agency put an October 22 due date on its request and reminded Elon & friends of a potential $115 million in fines for failure to comply - NYTimes
In other electric vehicle news, the SEC has opened a probe into e-delivery-truck company Workhorse Group, “an Ohio-based firm that was an early investor in now-struggling startup Lordstown Motors,” though the reasons for the investigation haven’t been made public yet - WSJ
More evidence has emerged that states that cut enhanced federal unemployment payments for their residents early have not boosted job growth any quicker than states that have continued to distribute the extra cash to its jobless - WSJ
While we’re talking employment, Amazon announced this week that it’s looking to hire 55,000 people globally (including 40k here in the States) “among its corporate and technology ranks” as the company continues a “hiring spree” that began at the start of the pandemic that has yet to peter out - WSJ and Bloomberg
The CFPB lives to fight another day, this time beating back a “payday loan industry-backed legal challenge” to the Bureau’s payday lending regs, which the industry group had argued were “allegedly beyond the CFPB’s legal authority to issue and were based on flawed rulemaking” – Law360
A coalition of U.S. business groups is lobbying the Biden Administration to cut tariffs on Chinese-made goods left over from the prior administration and to “restart trade talks” with Beijing, citing the still-“fractious” relationship between the world’s two biggest economies - NYTimes
Oh boy, all in for this piece begging for the end to what it’s dubbing “Zuck talk,” that linguistic approach prevalent across much of the tech industry that “marries supreme confidence with nervous filler words and a fear of pauses” and is bookended with “So . . . “ and “right?” - NYTimes
Enjoy the Labor Day holiday, and we’ll see you back here next Tuesday. In the meantime, stay safe, and get vaxxed.
MDR
