Category Archives: Business

European Commission to examine Ticketmaster’s ‘dynamic pricing’

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Review follows UK competition watchdog’s announcement of ‘urgent review’ into Oasis concert tickets fiasco

Ticketmaster’s ability to raise the price of concert tickets based on demand is being scrutinised by the European Commission, the Guardian has learned, as the UK’s competition watchdog launches an “urgent review” into the Oasis concerts fiasco.

The US-owned ticketing giant has been told it may have breached laws in the UK and Europe for inflating the price of some Oasis tickets from £135 to £350, leaving many fans devastated.

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What happened to Cathay Pacific’s A350 and how will it affect Rolls-Royce?

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British manufacturer’s share price slumped 6.5% after engines failed on Cathay Pacific flight on Monday

• Cathay Pacific says 15 jets need new part after Rolls-Royce engine problem

An engine failure on a Cathay Pacific flight on Monday has put the spotlight on the British manufacturer Rolls-Royce, which makes and maintains the power plant on the Airbus A350.

As airlines that operate the twin-aisle plane inspect their fleets, investors are trying to establish whether there will be broader implications for Rolls-Royce. The A350, which carries up to 410 passengers, is used mainly on lon-haul routes.

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Regulator may take action against three energy retailers over alleged misuse of Centrepay system

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Australian Energy Regulator weighs up enforcement options against AGL, Origin and Ergon Energy after landmark court win

The national energy regulator is weighing up whether to take new action against three retailers for their alleged use of the Centrepay system after a landmark court win against AGL.

The Australian Energy Regulator won a major case in the federal court against AGL in August after alleging the energy giant used the government-run payment system to wrongly take welfare money from almost 500 customers for years after they ceased being customers.

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US gambling sector’s ‘relentless’ social media posts breached own rules, study claims

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Exclusive: University of Bristol academics say gambling industry code ‘not being followed’ after analysis of social media posts by leading firms

As gambling companies target social media users, the four leading online brands appear to be routinely breaching the industry’s self-imposed marketing regulations, according to a new study.

Over one week this summer, academics at the University of Bristol found that BetMGM, DraftKings, ESPN Bet and FanDuel published more than a thousand posts – 75% of their non-sponsored content on Facebook, Instagram, X and TikTok – that did not include problem gambling support messages or a helpline number.

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Renewable energy auction secures enough power for 11m UK homes

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£1.5bn auction awards record funding for new windfarms, solar farms and tidal power projects

Great Britain’s renewable energy auction has secured enough new clean electricity projects to power 11m UK homes after the Labour government made record funding available to suppliers.

The £1.5bn auction will support 131 new projects including windfarms, solar farms and tidal power projects after ministers increased the amount of funding available to seven times the sums offered last year.

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Thieves try to steal almost half a tonne of olives as harvest begins in Spain

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Police find group ‘collecting olives in flagrante’ near Seville, with lucrative fruit a tempting target for criminals

Police in southern Spain have thwarted the theft of almost half a tonne of olives as the country’s harvest season begins and the lucrative fruit becomes a tempting target for opportunistic thieves and professional criminal gangs.

The verdeo – or collecting of the green olives – takes place in the early autumn and marks the beginning of the harvest season. As it got under way in Seville province this week, officers from Spain’s Guardia Civil force prevented 465kg (73st 2lbs) of olives from being stolen near the town of Albaida del Aljarafe.

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London workers slower to return to office than New York or Paris, study says

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Office attendance in UK capital similar to levels in Toronto and Sydney, thinktank finds

Workers in London have been slower to return to the office than those in other global cities such as Paris and New York, a report has found.

London was near the bottom of the pack, with office attendance similar to levels in Toronto and Sydney, according to research by the Centre for Cities thinktank, which surveyed employees and employers in six big cities.

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Cathay Pacific says 15 jets need new part after Rolls-Royce engine problem

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Singapore Airlines also says it is inspecting aircraft after component failure on rival’s Airbus A350

Cathay Pacific has said it identified 15 Airbus A350 aircraft that need component replacements after a part failed on one of its Rolls-Royce engines minutes after takeoff from Hong Kong on Monday.

A second carrier, Singapore Airlines, said on Tuesday it was also inspecting the engines of its Airbus A350 aircraft “as a precautionary measure”.

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Australia news live: tens of thousands still without power in Victoria; poll shows growing support for drug injecting rooms

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Storms in three states is expected to ease today. Follow all the news headlines live

Crews are continuing to restore power to Victorians after strong winds damaged powerlines and left thousands without power.

According to AusNet, there are still 37,500 without power, and according to Citipower and Powercor, there are 17,484 customers still affected.

We have restored power to over 43,063 customers as crews continue repairing the power network that was extensively damaged during last night’s wild weather.

Crews are responding to more than 380 individual faults, replacing power poles, reconnecting fallen powerlines and repairing other electrical infrastructure damaged by trees, branches and other debris.

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Arctic tern and common gull join red list of UK species in crisis

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Seabirds are in a precarious position as their breeding areas are threatened by climate breakdown and overfishing

Five seabirds have been added to the UK’s conservation red list, meaning they are at dire risk of local extinction.

The government has been urged to act as the arctic tern, Leach’s storm petrel, common gull, great skua and great black-backed gull join other seabird species such as the puffin on the list after severe population declines.

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Rolls-Royce is FTSE 100’s biggest faller as Cathay Pacific inspects A350 fleet

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Shares in engineering firm slide as airline cancels flights after finding engine component failure on aircraft

Shares in Rolls-Royce, the leading British engineering company, were the biggest faller on the FTSE 100 on Monday after Cathay Pacific Airways identified an engine component failure on an aircraft and began inspecting its entire Airbus A350 fleet.

The Hong Kong-based airline, which has cancelled 24 return flights so far while it performs the “precautionary” checks, said a number of aircraft would be out of service for several days. Shares in Rolls-Royce closed down 6%.

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Hewlett Packard to pursue Mike Lynch’s estate for up to $4bn

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Tech company says it will follow legal proceedings ‘to their conclusion’ after tycoon’s death last month

Hewlett Packard Enterprise has confirmed it will push ahead with a high court lawsuit against the estate of the deceased tech tycoon Mike Lynch in which it is seeking damages of up to $4bn (£3bn).

The US company said in a statement it would follow the legal proceedings “through to their conclusion” despite Lynch’s death last month when his yacht sank off the coast of Italy.

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Volkswagen considers German plant closures to save billions in costs

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Plans underline European carmakers’ problems in switching from petrol and diesel vehicles to electric models

Volkswagen is considering shutting two German factories, in what would be the carmaker’s first closures ever in its home country, as it struggles with the transition away from fossil fuels.

The Wolfsburg-based manufacturer on Monday informed its works council, which represents employees, that it was looking at closing “at least one larger vehicle manufacturing plant and one component factory in Germany” in order to find cost savings worth billions of euros.

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Publish data on ride-hailing apps ‘to cut exploitation and emissions’, say campaigners

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Campaign group says firms such as Uber should reveal data on driver miles to help boost wages

Uber and other ride-hailing apps should be forced to publish data on drivers’ workloads so that regulators can tackle exploitation and cut carbon emissions, campaigners argue.

Analysis by the pressure group Worker Info Exchange suggests drivers for Uber and its smaller rivals may have missed out on more than £1.2bn in wages and costs last year because of the way they are compensated.

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X goes offline in Brazil after Elon Musk’s refusal to comply with local laws

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Millions of users shut out and 500,000 switch to rival platform Bluesky as providers enact supreme court ban

One of the world’s most popular social networks, X, has gone offline in Brazil – the country with the fifth largest digital population – after Elon Musk’s refusal to comply with local laws meant it was blocked by the supreme court.

Millions of Brazilian X users found themselves unable to access the network on Saturday morning as internet providers and mobile phone companies began to enforce the ban.

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Will Labour resist the ‘killer tactics’ of industry’s enemies of public health?

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A new report lays down a challenge to Keir Starmer to take on vested interests of food, drink and tobacco companies

Illness, disease and death can be the result of bad luck, genetic factors or people’s lifestyles – whether someone smokes, drinks a lot or consumes a lot of junk food, for example.

The role of lifestyle in explaining why the UK is an increasingly sick country, and the growing pressures on the NHS, is often underappreciated. Experts tend to cite the growing and, especially, ageing population, which are both key factors.

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Thames Water lobbied Whitehall to press Ofwat on allowing higher bills

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Exclusive: Debt-ridden company also warned officials of ‘chilling effect’ of any renationalisation

Thames Water has lobbied the government to intervene with the regulator to allow it to charge far higher bills, the Guardian can reveal.

Advisers and board members of the beleaguered water company are understood to have met Whitehall officials in recent weeks to say that allowing it to be temporarily renationalised would have a “chilling effect” on the entire UK’s appeal to international investors, sources familiar with the discussions told the Guardian.

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Housing market at its strongest since Truss mini-budget aftermath

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House prices grew at annual rate of 2.4% in August, the fastest since December 2022, Nationwide figures show

The UK housing market is at its strongest since the aftermath of Liz Truss’s infamous mini-budget that sent borrowing costs soaring, according to the latest figures.

Nationwide said house prices grew at an annual rate of 2.4% in August, up from 2.1% in July and the fastest rate since December 2022.

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Shell to cut hundreds of jobs in oil and gas exploration operations

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Reduction of about a fifth of workforce in two subdivisions part of plan to slash up to $3bn in costs by end of 2025

Shell is to cut hundreds of jobs from its oil and gas exploration operation in the latest move by the chief executive, Wael Sawan, to slash up to $3bn (£2.3bn) in costs by the end of next year.

The energy company is to cut about a fifth of its workforce in two subdivisions of its oil and gas business responsible for exploration strategy and developing its oil and gas finds.

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Australia news live: BoM predicts warm spring as Sydney faces high fire danger and four states warned of high winds

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Windy weekend in prospect as BoM forecasts warmer-than-usual spring. Follow the day’s news live

Good morning and welcome to the end-of-week news blog. I’m Martin Farrer with the best of the overnight stories to get you up to speed before hosting duties switch to Emily Wind.

Mano Yogalingam was 23 years old and had “his whole life in front of him”. But the stresses and strains of living with the prospect of being deported back to Sri Lanka pushed him over the edge and he took his own life this week. Our top story this morning hears from refugee advocates who say the death of the Tamil asylum seeker has exposed the failings of the fast-track immigration system. “All of these people have been failed by the system. It’s a total cobweb of cruelty,” one said.

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