Lordstown Motors is having an eventful day, to say the least. The Ohio-based EV startup has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in hopes of finding a buyer and is suing its investment partner, Foxconn Technology, for breach of contract and fraud. In its suit, Lordstown claims Foxconn's actions "had the intended effect of destroying the business of an American startup."

Foxconn, primarily known for assembling Apple's iPhones, bought Lordstown's Ohio factory in late 2021 (around when General Motors jumped ship) and a year later agreed to invest another $170 million through the purchase of common shares and newly created preferred shares. But, in April, Foxconn threatened to terminate the deal, claiming that Lordstown's stock dropping below $1 per share for 30 trading days in a row represented a breach in their agreement. The car manufacturer said the claims had no merit and accused Foxconn of acting in "bad faith" to get control of the factory and its workers without intending to support Endurance, its first pickup EV. 

The decision to declare Bankruptcy doesn't exactly come as a surprise — in May, Lordstown said production would likely stop "in the near future" and that the company would file if its deal with Foxconn didn't proceed. Lordstown also reported a $171.1 million loss for 2023's first quarter. 

Endurance has also faced continual problems from production to the final product. Even after Foxconn bought the factory, Lordstown failed to meet its forecasted vehicle production numbers for 2022, cutting it from 500 to 50 trucks. Then came an underperformance in miles, with the Environmental Protection Agency recently rating the pickup's range as just 174 miles versus its promised 250. Its competitors, the Ford F-150 Lightning and the Rivian R1T, can go 240 and 289 miles, respectively. 

Gannett, a news publisher accused of monopolistic behavior, is suing Google for monopolistic behavior. It’s the latest in a string of lawsuits against the search giant, and it repeats many of the arguments made by the Department of Justice in its second lawsuit against Google, filed earlier this year. Gannett is the US’ largest news publisher. “Google has monopolized market trading to their advantage and at the expense of publishers, readers and everyone else,” Gannett CEO Mike Reed said toCNBC. “Digital advertising is the lifeblood of the online economy. Without free and fair competition for digital ad space, publishers cannot invest in their newsrooms.”

Gannett, which owns USA Today and various local papers, says Google has overly broad control over the online ad business, leading to diminished ad spending despite growing online readership. The crux of the complaint is that Google owns the largest ad exchange and ad server — both acquired rather than built organically — and that arrangement has led to diminished industry revenue.

“Content providers, including hundreds of our local news outlets, create enormous value but see none of the financial upside because Google, as middleman, has monopolized the markets for important software and technology products that publishers and advertisers use to buy and sell ad space,” Gannett CEO Mike Reed wrote today. “Google trades on that conflict of interest to its advantage and at the expense of publishers, readers and everyone else. Our lawsuit details more than a dozen significantly anticompetitive and deceptive acts by Google, starting as early as 2009 and persisting to present day.”

In a statement to Engadget, Google insisted that its services are popular because they’re the best — not due to a lack of competition. “These claims are simply wrong. Publishers have many options to choose from when it comes to using advertising technology to monetize — in fact, Gannett uses dozens of competing ad services, including Google Ad Manager,” VP of Google Ads Dan Taylor said. “And when publishers choose to use Google tools, they keep the vast majority of revenue. We’ll show the court how our advertising products benefit publishers and help them fund their content online.” Google says the average large publisher will use six different platforms to sell ads on its websites, while advertisers and media agencies will use over three platforms to buy ads. The search giant describes its ad tech fees as transparent and consistent with industry rates.

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However, Gannett’s complaints are similar to those of the DOJ, which filed a suit in January (alongside eight states) to break up Google’s advertising business. “Google’s anticompetitive behavior has raised barriers to entry to artificially high levels, forced key competitors to abandon the market for ad tech tools, dissuaded potential competitors from joining the market, and left Google’s few remaining competitors marginalized and unfairly disadvantaged,” the Justice Department alleged at the time. It was the DOJ’s second lawsuit against Google, following one filed in 2020 under former Attorney General Bill Barr, accusing the company of having a monopoly over search and search-related advertising.

Gannett’s and the DOJ’s most recent lawsuits claim Google has stifled competition in the space through acquisitions. “Whenever Google’s customers and competitors responded with innovation that threatened Google’s stranglehold over any one of these ad tech tools, Google’s anticompetitive response has been swift and effective,” the DOJ said.

Gannett is no stranger to monopolistic accusations. Although the company is over 116 years old, it was acquired by New Media Investment Group and merged with GateHouse Media (taking on the Gannett brand) in 2019. Since the merger, Gannett has laid off over half its workforce and shut down numerous local news outlets. In the period immediately following the acquisition, Gannett “owned 261 daily and 302 weekly newspapers,” according toNieman Lab. “By the end of 2022, those totals were 217 daily and 175 weekly newspapers,” although some were due to selling papers to local buyers. In addition, the company went from about 25,000 employees at the time of the acquisition to 11,200 in its most recent filing report.

The Securities and Exchange Commission and Binance have come to an agreement that will allow the cryptocurrency exchange to continue operating in the US until a lawsuit filed by the SEC earlier this month is resolved. The regulator sued Binance and founder Changpeng Zhao, better known as CZ, on June 5th, alleging the company had artificially inflated trading volumes, mixed and diverted customer assets and failed to restrict US investors from trading on Binance.com when they were supposed to stay on a separate US system.

After announcing the charges, the SEC sought to freeze Binance’s US assets. The regulator said the move was necessary to protect customer funds and prevent the company from potentially moving money abroad. Binance, meanwhile, argued an asset freeze would put it out of business in the US. On Tuesday, the judge overseeing the litigation ordered the two sides to come to a compromise that would safeguard customer assets. 

In a court filing seen by The New York Times, the SEC said Friday that Binance had agreed to move all assets belonging to US customers stateside. Additionally, the company’s US operation is prohibited from providing access or control of domestic assets or funds to Binance’s international operation or Zhao. Until the ligation is resolved, Binance.US is "solely" allowed to transfer assets “to make payments for expenses or to satisfy obligations incurred in the ordinary course of business.” Additionally, the exchange is required to create new customer wallets which its international employees can’t access. The deal still needs approval from Judge Amy Berman – and won’t resolve the SEC lawsuit even if it’s put in place.

“Given that Changpeng Zhao and Binance have control of the platforms’ customers’ assets and have been able to commingle customer assets or divert customer assets as they please, as we have alleged, these prohibitions are essential to protecting investor assets,” the SEC said Saturday. “Further, we ensured that US customers will be able to withdraw their assets from the platform while we work to resolve the alleged underlying misconduct and hold Zhao and the Binance entities accountable for their alleged securities law violations.”

Zhao took to Twitter on Saturday morning to comment on the deal. “Although we maintain that the SEC's request for emergency relief was entirely unwarranted, we are pleased that the disagreement over this request was resolved on mutually acceptable terms,” he posted. “User funds have been and always will be safe and secure on all Binance-affiliated platforms.”

The SEC’s lawsuit against Binance is part of a broader crackdown by the watchdog against the crypto industry. At the end of last year, the agency accused FTX founder and former CEO Sam Bankman-Fried of carrying out an alleged multi-year scheme to defraud investors. One day after suing Binance, the SEC filed a complaint against Coinbase, the largest crypto trading platform in the US, alleging the company had failed to register as a broker, national securities exchange or clearing agency.

The office of Texas State Attorney General Ken Paxton has requested that Pfizer and several other companies turn over advertising data tied to the social media giant Meta. The lawsuit was filed after consumer data privacy concerns were raised by the state in its latest legal battle with Meta, according to a report by Law360. The Texas Attorney General claims that millions of Texas residents have had their private biometric data misappropriated over the past ten years.

The order requires the vaccine maker to share any records it holds regarding Meta’s use of facial recognition technology over claims that the company was collecting biometric data from Facebook users without their consent. This decree over Pfizer’s records follows a February 2022 filing against Meta by the Texas Attorney General that claimed “Facebook knowingly captured biometric information for its own commercial benefit” in order to “train and improve” its in-house facial recognition technology powered by AI. The Texas lawsuit cites Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerburg’s commentary that photo tagging is “more important than every other [Facebook] feature put together” as evidence in their case against the company under a section that highlights its allegations against the company. The February 2022 petition against Meta over data privacy concerns came shortly after Facebook decided to discontinue its face recognition systems in 2021. Meta said its move to cut back on its facial recognition tech development was necessary because of the lack of regulator guidelines.

The Texas Attorney General has been aggressive in its pursuit of Meta’s data on the issue. The state has cast a wide net with its series of lawsuits, subpoenaing a number of other big-name companies affiliated with the company through its advertising arm. Pfizer is just one of many companies subpoenaed in the attempt to discover data incriminating Meta. Others ordered to turn over advertising data include Procter & Gamble, Home Depot, The New York Times, SmileDirectClub and Clarity Media Group. Although the exact investment value of Pfizer’s advertising deals with Meta are undisclosed, we do know the company’s “selling, general, and administrative expenses,” which include marketing and advertising, reached a whopping $34 billion in 2022.

Meta is hardly the only name in big tech being targeted by the Texas AG over data privacy concerns. Google is similarly facing the Texas Attorney General in court over its facial data collection practices. Last year, Google was sued by Texas for engaging in “years-long practices” of capturing biometric data from millions of Texans without consent. In that same year in a separate lawsuit with the state of Illinois, Google paid $100 million to settle a class action that accused the tech giant of violating the Biometric Information Protection Act. The case resembles the Texas suit filed against Meta, which claims the company violated Texas’ Capture or Use of Biometric Identifier Act. Confirmation that a violation of that specific Texas act by Meta can result in a penalty of up to $25,000 per violation of the law. So far, an infraction fine against the social media giant has not been determined.

Both Pfizer and the Texas AG office could not be reached to comment on the ongoing case.

Jack Texeira, the Air National Guard member who was arrested in April for sharing documents containing US intelligence matters, has been indicted on six counts of willful retention and transmission of classified national defense information. According to The New York Times, Texeira was indicted by a federal grand jury and now faces up to 60 years in prison. His 10-page indictment reportedly contained a distilled version of the national secrets Texeira allegedly took from the Cape Cod air base and shared with people on Discord. 

The Justice Department arrested Texeira in April in connection with its investigation on the "alleged unauthorized removal, retention, and transmission of classified national defense information." While previous reports said he shared national secrets using a pseudonym on Discord, he was identified through the Instagram account he linked to his Steam profile. The photos on that account showed the same granite kitchen countertop and floor tiles that were also visible in the leaks. 

According to the 10-page indictment documents, Texeira mishandled classified information that included details on the delivery of military equipment to Ukraine, as well as details on Russian and Ukrainian troop movements. He also reportedly leaked documents showing how the US spies on its foreign allies. Some of the documents he shared with the public had markings to show that they had the most highly restricted classification and could only be viewed inside a protected facility. 

Previous reports said Texeira didn't intend to become a whistleblower and only started sharing documents to impress his gaming friends. He started by copying sensitive information by hand, since he worked at a facility that prohibited cameras and phones, but was eventually able to post photos of original documents. Since he was arrested, prosecutors presented his history of making violent and racist threats to court. The Justice Department's national security division also argued for his indefinite detention, because he could still be in possession of information that would be "tremendous value to hostile nation-states." In addition, the Justice Department has revealed that Air Force officials failed to remove Texeira from his job and to take appropriate action after catching him copying sensitive details and actively looking for classified information months before he was arrested. 

Twitter has yet another major lawsuit to contend with. A group of more than a dozen music publishers has filed a $250 million lawsuit against the company over allegations of “massive” copyright infringement on the platform.

The suit, filed by the National Music Publishers Association, alleges Twitter users have violated artists’ copyrights on thousands of occasions and that the company has done little to stop it. It notes that Twitter is among the only major social platforms that doesn’t have licensing agreements in place.

According to The New York Times, Twitter had been in negotiations for such a deal but those talks eventually broke down. “While numerous Twitter competitors recognize the need for proper licenses and agreements for the use of musical compositions on their platforms, Twitter does not, and instead breeds massive copyright infringement that harms music creators,” the filing states.

The lawsuit also accuses Twitter of ignoring music publishers’ requests to take copyright infringing material off its platform despite weekly notices from publishers.“The reality is that Twitter routinely ignores known repeat infringers and known infringements, refusing to take simple steps that are available to Twitter to stop these specific instances of infringement of which it is aware,” the lawsuit says,

The suit also claims many offending tweets are now shared by verified users, and that Twitter is likely to take action against verified accounts. “Twitter suspended virtually none of the verified accounts identified in the NMPA Notices and which have large follower bases,” the suit says. “Twitter gives them preferential treatment, viewing accounts that are verified and have large follower bases as more valuable and monetizable than accounts that are unverified and have a small number of followers.”

Though the lawsuit says that copyright infringement has been a problem at Twitter for years, it says things have gotten worse since Elon Musk took over the company and that things are in “disarray” internally. Of note, the suit also cites tweets from Musk himself, in which he criticized copyright law, calling the “overzealous DMCA [Digital Millennium Copyright Act]” a “plague on humanity.”

“This statement and others like it exert pressure on Twitter employees, including those in its trust and safety team, on issues relating to copyright and infringement,” the music publishers say.

Twitter didn’t respond to a request for comment.

The FTC has notched a win, albeit a temporary one, in its bid to prevent Microsoft from closing its deal with Activision Blizzard. According to The Financial Times and Bloomberg, a US federal judge has issued an order that temporarily blocks the companies from finalizing their $68.7 billion deal while waiting for the court to decide on the FTC's request for a preliminary injunction. If you'll recall, the agency has filed for an injunction in response to news reports that the companies were closing the deal "imminently" and that they had set July 18th as the target deadline for the acquisition.

Judge Edward J. Davila has ruled that the merger can't take place until five days after the court has decided on whether or not to issue an injunction against it. To note, the court is scheduled to hear the FTC's request for an injunction on June 22nd and 23rd, so the earliest the companies can proceed with their plans is the end of this month — if the court doesn't ultimately side with the agency. The commission said in its filing:

"With control of Activision's content, Microsoft would have the ability and increased incentive to withhold or degrade Activision’s content in ways that substantially lessen competition — including competition on product quality, price, and innovation."

Microsoft and Activision Blizzard, however, seem to be unperturbed by the FTC's lawsuit. In a statement, Microsoft told us that the injunction request is "accelerating the legal process" that will help the merger move forward sooner. "A temporary restraining order makes sense until we can receive a decision from the court, which is moving swiftly," a spokesperson also told The Times. 

In May, the European Union approved the acquisition, as long as Microsoft agreed to release popular Activision Blizzard games on competing cloud gaming services. But the companies still have to convince US and UK authorities to allow the merger to push through. The FTC filed an antitrust complaint in December 2022 to block the deal over worries that it "would enable Microsoft to suppress competitors to its Xbox gaming consoles and its rapidly growing subscription content and cloud-gaming business." That particular lawsuit was filed at the agency's in-house court, and the commission's administrative law judge is scheduled to hear the case in August. 

You soon won't have to dig out your old DS copy or your 3DS to replay Apollo Justice anymore. Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney is coming to newer consoles as a trilogy packaged with Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney — Dual Destinies and Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney — Spirit of Justice, Capcom has announced at Summer Games Fest. 

It's been a long wait for fans of the series, seeing as the first three Ace Attorney games were released for the PC, Steam, PS4, Xbox One and Switch way back in 2019. The Apollo Justice trilogy will be available for the same devices, so you will not be able to play them on a PS5 or an Xbox X|S. Still, you can now finally have all six games on one console. 

According to Gematsu, the games packaged in the trilogy will be remastered full high-definition versions of the titles. They'll also come in seven languages, namely Japanese, English, French, German, Korean, Traditional Chinese and Simplified Chinese. These language options will have their equivalent voice recordings, as well. 

The Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney Trilogy doesn't have an exact release date yet, but it will be available in early 2024. 

The US Department of Justice announced today that it charged two Russian nationals for crimes related to the 2011 hacking of Mt. Gox, the now-defunct crypto exchange that was one of the world’s largest at the time. Alexey Bilyuchenko and Aleksandr Verner are accused in the Southern District of New York (SDNY) of laundering about 647,000 bitcoins connected to the heist. In addition, Bilyuchenko faces separate charges in the Northern District of California (NDCA) related to running the infamous Russian crypto exchange BTC-e.

The pair are being charged in SDNY for conspiracy to commit money laundering. Meanwhile, the NDCA charges are for conspiracy to commit money laundering and operating an unlicensed money services business. The SDNY charges carry a maximum sentencing of 20 years for each defendant, while Bilyuchenko faces a maximum of 25 years in prison in the NDCA indictment.

The DOJ says Bilyuchenko, Verner and co-conspirators gained access to the server storing Mt. Gox’s crypto wallets in or about September 2011. Once they infiltrated the servers, the pair and their partners allegedly initiated the transfer of customers’ bitcoins to accounts they controlled. In addition, they’re accused of laundering the stolen bitcoins to accounts on other crypto exchanges also controlled by the group.

The conspirators allegedly negotiated and entered into a fraudulent “advertising contract” with a New York bitcoin brokerage service, a relationship they used to request regular transfers to “various offshore bank accounts, including in the names of shell corporations, controlled by Bilyuchenko, Verner, and their co-conspirators.” The DOJ says the group transferred over $6.6 million from March 2012 to April 2013.

“This announcement marks an important milestone in two major cryptocurrency investigations,” said US Assistant Attorney General Kenneth A. Polite, Jr. “As alleged in the indictments, starting in 2011, Bilyuchenko and Verner stole a massive amount of cryptocurrency from Mt. Gox, contributing to the exchange’s ultimate insolvency. Armed with the ill-gotten gains from Mt. Gox, Bilyuchenko allegedly went on to help set up the notorious BTC-e virtual currency exchange, which laundered funds for cyber criminals worldwide. These indictments highlight the department’s unwavering commitment to bring to justice bad actors in the cryptocurrency ecosystem and prevent the abuse of the financial system.”

The Federal Communications Commission has issued a cease-and-desist letter to Avid Telecom, the same company sued by nearly all Attorneys General in the US for alleged robocall activities. In the letter (PDF) addressed to Avid CEO Michael Lansky, the FCC said it has determined that the company "is apparently originating illegal robocall traffic on behalf of one or more of its clients." The commission explained that it worked with USTelecom’s Industry Traceback Group, which investigated prerecorded telemarketing calls related to health insurance that the aforementioned state attorneys general identified as robocalls made without consent.

Apparently, their investigation determined that Avid originated the calls. When notified about the calls, Avid told the traceback group that its customer obtained consent through opt-in websites, but the FCC explained in its letter that the customer "failed to make adequate disclosures to obtain consent." That is, it didn't tell people that their consent authorizes the caller "to deliver advertisements or telemarketing messages using an auto-dialer or an artificial or prerecorded voice." In some cases, the customer allegedly called people even after they revoked their consent. 

The FCC has outlined the steps Avid has to take to address the issue, starting by investigating the identified traffic. Then, it has to implement measures that can prevent new and existing customers from using its network to make illegal calls. Within 48 hours of receiving the letter, Avid is required to update the FCC with the measures it has taken to mitigate robocalls coming from its network. After that, it has to inform the commission of the safeguards it has implemented to prevent its customers from using its network to make robocalls. The FCC warned that if Avid fails to comply, downstream voice service providers might permanently block all of Avid’s traffic. 

In late May, Attorneys General from 48 states filed a lawsuit against the Arizona-based VoIP services provider, accusing it of being the origin for over 7.5 billion calls to people on the National Do Not Call Registry. According to the lawsuit, Avid spoofed phone numbers and made calls appear as if they were from government offices, law enforcement agencies and companies like Amazon. The Attorneys General are asking the court to issue an injunction on Avid for making robocalls and to make the company pay for damages and restitution to the people it called illegally.