The French medical safety regulator faces prosecution for injuries and manslaughter by negligence caused by epilepsy drug Valproate, which was sold by pharmaceutical firm Sanofi as Dépakine. The National Agency for Medicines and Health Products (ANSM) disclosed it has been indicted and will cooperate with investigators. Valproate taken by pregnant women is alleged to have caused health problems in their…
UK regulator the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) has slashed its proposed GDPR fine of almost £100m against hotel group Marriott International to just £18.4m, after it took into account the impact of Covid-19 on the business and mitigation measures put in place after the breach was identified. The reduced penalty was anticipated after the ICO reduced a record fine of…
H&M’s recent €35m GDPR fine, based on a new model formula in Germany, reflects a trend for higher penalties and more investigations under the regulation across many parts of Europe, according to leading lawyers. Swedish clothing retailer H&M was fined just over €35m by Hamburg’s data protection commissioner, for GDPR breaches. The company was found to have unlawfully collected and…
Russia was planning a major cyberattack on the 2020 Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic Games, which did not go ahead this summer because of the Covid-19 pandemic, according to intelligence collected by the UK’s National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC). The NCSC also disclosed that Russia’s GRU military intelligence service targeted the 2018 Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games in Korea. The NCSC…
British Airways has had its proposed £183.4m GDPR fine reduced to £20m by the UK’s Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO). The fine remains the biggest ever handed out by the ICO. It has announced an intention to fine Marriot £99m for a data breach but this is also expected to be reduced. The ICO issued its intention to fine BA in…
Trust in corporate social and environmental performance is at its highest ever level, according to a global poll by GlobeScan and GRI. The poll of 1,000 people shows that public trust in corporate statements on social and environmental performance across the 27 markets surveyed now stands at 51%. This is up from 30% when the survey launched in 2003, with…
The UK’s financial services industry has mitigated most Brexit risks for continuing cross-border business, even if the UK and EU fail to reach agreement over the future of financial services once the transition period expires at the end of 2020, said the Bank of England’s Financial Policy Committee (FPC). However, it warned that “some disruption” remains a possibility for EU-based…
Regulated firms in the UK, including banks and estate agents, are only just over half way through implementing the European Union’s Fifth Money Laundering Directive (5MLD) – which became law in January – and are at risk of fines, according to research by LexisNexis Risk Solutions. It warned that banks, lenders, wealth managers and estate agents must comply with the…
The US Treasury has warned that companies and insurers that pay ransoms to cyberattackers, or financial institutions facilitating payments, could be in breach of US law. Advisories from the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) and Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) have reminded companies of their duty to submit suspicious activity reports (SAR), and warned businesses and cyber insurers that…
Swedish multinational clothes retailer H&M has been fined €35.3m under the GDPR by Hamburg’s data protection commissioner for snooping and storing information on employees at one if its subsidiaries. Hamburg’s commissioner for data protection and freedom of information said the case centred around the monitoring of several hundred employees at H&M’s service centre in Nuremberg. It explained that members of…