Meta Reaches Settlement With Feds Over Allegedly Discriminatory Housing Ads

Back at it. Let’s get to work.

Meta has reached a deal with federal authorities in which the Facebook parent will “adopt new online advertising practices” aimed at resolving allegations that its online ads “discriminated against users by race, gender and other factors.” Zuck & Co. will also pay a nominal fine under the terms of the agreement - WSJ and Bloomberg and Law360 and NYTimes

New litigation by Uber and Lyft drivers accuse the ride-hailing companies of “engaging in anticompetitive practices by setting the prices customers pay and limiting drivers’ ability to choose which rides they accept without penalty.” The drivers will test these theories in Superior Court in San Francisco and are seeking class status - NYTimes and Law360

Stocks bounced back on Tuesday, “offering investors a reprieve from a recent stretch of whipsaw trading that had sent stocks and cryptocurrencies falling.” Don’t expect it to continue - WSJ and MarketWatch and Bloomberg

Cue the hard-landing talk - Bloomberg and Marketplace

After more than a decade of letting small businesses use its email and business apps without charge, Google is forcing users of its “G Suite legacy free edition” to start paying a monthly charge starting in July. Users are far from thrilled - NYTimes

Cereal giant Kellogg has announced plans to split into three companies, “seeking to jump-start its larger, faster-growing snacks business while helping its namesake cereal brands regain their footing on supermarket shelves.” The three will focus on cereals, snacks, and plant-based foods and echoes a split Kraft made a decade ago - WSJ and Marketplace

An existing backlog of some 8 million 2021 returns is severely hampering IRS efforts to make a dent in this year’s returns—especially those filed by paper. That means that millions of paper returns filed in 2022 haven’t yet been touched - NYTimes

The Federal Trade Commission “has extended its review” of NYSE owner Intercontinental Exchange Inc.’s deal to purchase housing finance industry data and analytics company Black Knight Inc.  for $16 billion. The extension gives the Commission more time to potentially challenge the acquisition on antitrust grounds – Law360

Not a great look for the Zelle consortium, with banks routinely refusing to refund “customers who inadvertently granted a scammer permission to use their accounts” and to return money to customers “whose money was stolen” via forced transfers. Besides the bad PR, the refusals could run afoul of Reg E, which requires banks to “make clients whole if their money is stolen from a consumer account through an electronic payment initiated by another person” - NYTimes

Credit Suisse really, really doesn’t want to pay billionaire client Bidzina Ivanishvili the $607 million damages he was awarded by a Bermudan court in March. Loophole watch, people . . . - WSJ

Celebrating 20 years of “Lilo & Stitch,” the Disney animated movie that broke ground—true—with its “realistic body types, cultural accuracy and misunderstood protagonist” way back in 2002 - NYTimes

Stay safe,

MDR

The Robins Kaplan Financial Daily Dose features top stories and latest news headlines in financial markets, banking, securities and technology topics.