Heavy vehicular traffic is seen in the Ocean Beach neighbourhood of San Diego, California, U.S., ahead of the Fourth of July holiday July 3, 2020. REUTERS/Bing Guan
WASHINGTON, Sept 19 (Reuters) – U.S. auto safety investigators have opened a new probe into 30 million vehicles built by nearly two dozen automakers with potentially defective Takata air bag inflators, a government document seen by Reuters on Sunday showed.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) on Friday opened an engineering analysis into an estimated 30 million U.S. vehicles from the 2001 through 2019 model years. Automakers were alerted to the investigation, which is not yet public.
The new investigation includes vehicles assembled by Honda Motor Co (7267.T), Ford Motor Co (F.N), Toyota Motor Corp (7203.T), General Motors Co (GM.N), Nissan Motor (7201.T), Subaru (7270.T), Tesla (TSLA.O), Ferrari NV , Nissan Motor (TAMO.NS), Mazda (7261.T), Daimler AG (DAIGn.DE), BMW (BMWG.DE) Chrysler (now part of Stellantis NV (STLA.MI)), Porsche Cars (PSHG_p.DE), Jaguar Land Rover (owned by Tata Motors (TAMO.NS)) and others.
The automakers on Sunday either declined to comment before NHTSA’s expected public announcement on Monday, or did not immediately respond to requests for comment. NHTSA declined to comment.
The 30 million vehicles include both vehicles that had the inflators installed when they were manufactured as well as some inflators that were used in prior recall repairs, NHTSA said in the document.
Over the last decade, more than 67 million Takata air bag inflators have been recalled in the United States — and more than 100 million worldwide — in the biggest auto safety callback in history because inflators can send deadly metal fragments flying in rare instances.
There have been at least 28 deaths worldwide, including 19 in the United States tied to faulty Takata inflators and more than 400 injuries.
The 30 million vehicles that are part of the new investigation have inflators with a “desiccant” or drying agent. According to the document, NHTSA said there have been no reported ruptures of vehicles on the roads with air bag inflators with the drying agent.
“While no present safety risk has been identified, further work is needed to evaluate the future risk of non-recalled desiccated inflators,” NHTSA said in opening its engineering analysis seen by Reuters. “Further study is needed to assess the long-term safety of desiccated inflators.”
NHTSA has said the cause of the inflator explosions tied to the recall of 67 million inflators that can emit deadly fragments is propellant breaking down after long-term exposure to high temperature fluctuations and humidity. The agency has required all similar Takata without a drying agent to be recalled.
In the United States, 16 deaths in Honda vehicles have been reported, two in Ford vehicles and one in a BMW, while 9 other Honda deaths occurred in Malaysia, Brazil and Mexico.
NHTSA did not immediately release a breakdown of how many vehicles per manufacturer are covered by the probe.
The safety agency said the investigation “will require extensive information on Takata production processes and surveys of inflators in the field.”
Earlier this year, NHTSA said of the 67 million recalled inflators, approximately 50 million have been repaired or are otherwise accounted for.
Reporting by David Shepardson; editing by Diane Craft
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
Embedded finance investment jumps in 2021, data shows
Buy now pay later deals take centre stage
Fintech market valuations leapfrog banks
LONDON, Sept 17 (Reuters) – Anyone can be a banker these days, you just need the right code.
Global brands from Mercedes and Amazon (AMZN.O) to IKEA and Walmart (WMT.N) are cutting out the traditional financial middleman and plugging in software from tech startups to offer customers everything from banking and credit to insurance.
For established financial institutions, the warning signs are flashing.
So-called embedded finance – a fancy term for companies integrating software to offer financial services – means Amazon can let customers “buy now pay later” when they check out and Mercedes drivers can get their cars to pay for their fuel.
To be sure, banks are still behind most of the transactions but investors and analysts say the risk for traditional lenders is that they will get pushed further away from the front end of the finance chain.
And that means they’ll be further away from the mountains of data others are hoovering up about the preferences and behaviours of their customers – data that could be crucial in giving them an edge over banks in financial services.
“Embedded financial services takes the cross-sell concept to new heights. It’s predicated on a deep software-based ongoing data relationship with the consumer and business,” said Matt Harris, a partner at investor Bain Capital Ventures.
“That is why this revolution is so important,” he said. “It means that all the good risk is going to go to these embedded companies that know so much about their customers and what is left over will go to banks and insurance companies.”
WHERE DO YOU WANT TO PLAY?
For now, many areas of embedded finance are barely denting the dominance of banks and even though some upstarts have licences to offer regulated services such as lending, they lack the scale and deep funding pools of the biggest banks.
But if financial technology firms, or fintechs, can match their success in grabbing a chunk of digital payments from banks – and boosting their valuations in the process – lenders may have to respond, analysts say.
Stripe, for example, the payments platform behind many sites with clients including Amazon and Alphabet’s (GOOGL.O) Google, was valued at $95 billion in March. read more
Accenture estimated in 2019 that new entrants to the payments market had amassed 8% of revenues globally – and that share has risen over the past year as the pandemic boosted digital payments and hit traditional payments, Alan McIntyre, senior banking industry director at Accenture, said.
Now the focus is turning to lending, as well as complete off-the-shelf digital lenders with a variety of products businesses can pick and choose to embed in their processes.
“The vast majority of consumer centric companies will be able to launch financial products that will allow them to significantly improve their customer experience,” said Luca Bocchio, partner at venture capital firm Accel.
“That is why we feel excited about this space.”
So far this year, investors have poured $4.25 billion into embedded finance startups, almost three times the amount in 2020, data provided to Reuters by PitchBook shows.
Leading the way is Swedish buy now pay later (BNPL) firm Klarna which raised $1.9 billion.
DriveWealth, which sells technology allowing companies to offer fractional share trading, attracted $459 million while investors put $229 million into Solarisbank, a licensed German digital bank which offers an array of banking services software.
Shares in Affirm (AFRM.O), meanwhile, surged last month when it teamed up with Amazon to offer BNPL products while rival U.S. fintech Square (SQ.N) said last month it was buying Australian BNPL firm Afterpay (APT.AX) for $29 billion.
Square is now worth $113 billion, more than Europe’s most valuable bank, HSBC (HSBA.L), on $105 billion.
“Big banks and insurers will lose out if they don’t act quickly and work out where to play in this market,” said Simon Torrance, founder of Embedded Finance & Super App Strategies.
Reuters Graphics
YOU NEED A LOAN!
Several other retailers have announced plans this year to expand in financial services.
Walmart launched a fintech startup with investment firm Ribbit Capital in January to develop financial products for its employees and customers while IKEA took a minority stake in BNPL firm Jifiti last month.
Automakers such as Volkswagen’s (VOWG_p.DE) Audi and Tata’s (TAMO.NS) Jaguar Land Rover have experimented with embedding payment technology in their vehicles to take the hassle out of paying, besides Daimler’s (DAIGn.DE) Mercedes.
“Customers expect services, including financial services, to be directly integrated at the point of consumption, and to be convenient, digital, and immediately accessible,” said Roland Folz, chief executive of Solarisbank which provides banking services to more than 50 companies including Samsung.
It’s not just end consumers being targeted by embedded finance startups. Businesses themselves are being tapped on the shoulder as their digital data is crunched by fintechs such as Canada’s Shopify (SHOP.TO).
It provides software for merchants and its Shopify Capital division also offers cash advances, based on an analysis of more than 70 million data points across its platform.
“No merchant comes to us and says, I would like a loan. We go to merchants and say, we think it’s time for funding for you,” said Kaz Nejatian, vice president, product, merchant services at Shopify.
“We don’t ask for business plans, we don’t ask for tax statements, we don’t ask for income statements, and we don’t ask for personal guarantees. Not because we are benevolent but because we think those are bad signals into the odds of success on the internet,” he said.
A Shopify spokesperson said funding goes from $200 to $2 million. It has provided $2.3 billion in cumulative capital advances and is valued at $184 billion, well above Royal Bank of Canada (RY.TO), the country’s biggest traditional lender.
CONNECTED FUTURE?
Shopify’s lending business is, however, still dwarfed by the big banks. JPMorgan Chase & Co (JPM.N), for example, had a consumer and community loan book worth $435 billion at the end of June.
Major advances into finance by companies from other sectors could also be limited by regulators.
Officials from the Bank for International Settlements, a consortium of central banks and financial regulators, warned watchdogs last month to get to grips with the growing influence of technology firms in finance. read more
Bain’s Harris said financial regulators were taking the approach that because they don’t know how to regulate tech firms they are insisting there’s a bank behind every transaction – but that did not mean banks would prevent fintechs encroaching.
“They are right that the banks will always have a role but it’s not a very remunerative role and it involves very little ownership of the customer,” he said.
Forrester analyst Jacob Morgan said banks had to decide where they want to be in the finance chain.
“Can they afford to fight for customer primacy, or do they actually see a more profitable route to market to become the rails that other people run on top of?” he said. “Some banks will choose to do both.”
And some are already fighting back.
Citigroup (C.N) has teamed up with Google on bank accounts, Goldman Sachs (GS.N) is providing credit cards for Apple (AAPL.O) and JPMorgan is buying 75% of Volkswagen’s payments business and plans to expand to other industries. read more 06:00:00
“Connectivity between different systems is the future,” said Shahrokh Moinian, head of wholesale payments, EMEA, at JPMorgan. “We want to be the leader.”
Reporting by Anna Irrera and Iain Withers; Editing by Rachel Armstrong and David Clarke
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
The logo of Tesla cars logo is seen during the presentation of the new charge system in the EUREF campus in Berlin, Germany September 10, 2020. REUTERS/Michele Tantussi
WASHINGTON, Sept 3 (Reuters) – U.S. auto safety regulators are investigating a July 26 fatal crash in New York involving a Tesla (TSLA.O)vehicle that might have been using an advanced driver assistance system, they disclosed on Friday.
New York City police confirmed on Friday an ongoing investigation into the July 26 death of a 52-year-old man attempting to fix a flat tire on his vehicle on the Long Island Expressway when he was struck by a Tesla.
A National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) spokeswoman told Reuters on Friday the agency was aware of the “July 26 incident involving a Tesla vehicle on the Long Island Expressway in New York, and has launched a Special Crash Investigation team to investigate the crash.”
NHTSA’s probe into the New York crash was first reported by Reuters.
Tesla did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The U.S. investigations come amid increased scrutiny of Tesla’s Autopilot and other driver assistance systems. Tesla’s Autopilot handles some driving tasks and allows drivers to keep their hands off the wheel for extended periods.
Last month, NHTSA said it opened a formal safety probe into Autopilot after 11 crashes involving Tesla models and emergency vehicles.
On Wednesday, NHTSA identified a 12th crash involving a Tesla vehicle using an advanced driver assistance system that struck an emergency vehicle in Orlando, Florida.
On Friday, NHTSA released an updated list of special crash investigation crashes that it is reviewing, in which advanced driver assistance systems are suspected of being used including the New York crash involving a 2021 Tesla Model Y as well as a crash in Florida.
NHTSA has opened 33 investigations into Tesla crashes involving 11 deaths since 2016, in which use of advanced driver assistance systems was suspected. NHTSA has ruled out Autopilot use in three of those non-fatal crashes.
Reporting by David Shepardson; Editing by Richard Chang
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
A 3D printed Google logo is placed on the Apple Macbook in this illustration taken April 12, 2020. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo
SEOUL, Aug 25 (Reuters) – A South Korean parliamentary committee voted early on Wednesday to recommend amending a law, a key step toward banning Google and Apple from forcibly charging software developers commissions on in-app purchases, the first such curb by a major economy.
After the vote from the legislation and judiciary committee to amend the Telecommunications Business Act, dubbed the “Anti-Google law,” the amendment will come to a final vote in parliament.
That vote could come on Wednesday, although South Korean news agency Yonhap reported that parliament would act at a later date. read more
A parliament official told Reuters the office had not yet received an official request not to hold the meeting on Wednesday.
Apple Inc (AAPL.O) and Alphabet Inc’s (GOOGL.O) Google have both faced global criticism because they require software developers using their app stores to use proprietary payment systems that charge commissions of up to 30%.
In a statement on Tuesday, Apple said the bill “will put users who purchase digital goods from other sources at risk of fraud, undermine their privacy protections”, hurt user trust in App Store purchases and lead to fewer opportunities for South Korean developers.
Wilson White, senior director of public policy at Google, said “the rushed process hasn’t allowed for enough analysis of the negative impact of this legislation on Korean consumers and app developers”.
Legal experts said app store operators could work with developers and other companies to create secure payment methods other than the ones they provide.
“Google and Apple aren’t the only ones that can create a secure payment system,” said Lee Hwang, a Korea University School of Law professor specialising in competition law. “I think it’s a problem to try to inspire excessive fear by talking about safety or security about using different payment methods.”
Based on South Korean parliament records, the amendment bans app store operators with dominant market positions from forcing payment systems on content providers and “inappropriately” delaying the review of, or deleting, mobile contents from app markets.
It also allows the South Korean government to require an app market operator to “prevent damage to users and protect the rights and interests of users”, probe app market operators, and mediate disputes regarding payment, cancellations or refunds in the app market.
This month in the United States, a bipartisan group of senators introduced a bill that would rein in app stores of companies that they said exert too much market control, including Apple and Google. read more
Reporting by Heekyong Yang and Joyce Lee. Editing by Gerry Doyle
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
SEOUL, Aug 24 (Reuters) – South Korea is likely to bar Google and Apple from requiring software developers to use their payment systems, effectively stopping them from charging commissions on in-app purchases, the first such curbs on the tech giants by a major economy.
The parliament’s legislation and judiciary committee is expected on Tuesday to approve the amendment of the Telecommunications Business Act, dubbed the “Anti-Google law,” that takes aim at app store operators with dominant market positions.
If the bill gets the committee’s approval, it will be put to a final vote on Wednesday. Lawmakers in South Korea have pushed the issue of the commission structure since mid last year.
Alphabet Inc’s (GOOGL.O) Google and Apple Inc (AAPL.O) were not immediately available for comment.
Both companies have faced global criticism because they require software developers using their app stores to use proprietary in-app payment systems that charge commissions of up to 30% on in-app purchases.
“For gaming apps, Google has been forcing app developers to use its own payment system … and it wants to expand its policy to other apps like music or webtoon,” said Kwon Se-hwa, a general manager at the Korea Internet Corporations Association, a nonprofit group representing Korean IT firms.
“If the new bill becomes the law, developers will have options to use other independent payment systems,” Kwon said.
The European Union last year proposed the Digital Markets Act, taking aim at app store commissions. The rules are designed to affect large companies, but some European lawmakers are in favour of tightening them to specifically target American technology giants, Reuters reported in June. read more
Earlier this month in the United States, a bipartisan trio of senators introduced a bill that would rein in app stores of companies that they said exert too much market control, including Apple and Google. read more
In South Korea, the home market of Android phone maker Samsung Electronics Co Ltd (005930.KS), Google Play Store earned revenue of nearly 6 trillion won ($5.29 billion) in 2019, according to a government report published last year.
Earlier this year, Google said it will lower the service fee it charges developers on its app store from 30% to 15% on the first $1 million they earn in revenue in a year. Apple has made similar moves. read more
For Apple too, commissions from in-app purchases are a key part of its $53.8 billion services business, and are a major expense for some app developers.
In May, an antitrust lawsuit filed by the maker of the popular game “Fortnite” against Apple revealed that the game maker paid $100 million in commissions to Apple over two years. read more
Reporting by Heekyong Yang in Seoul, Additional reporting by Stephen Nellis in San Francisco
Editing by Shri Navaratnam
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
Aug 19 (Reuters) – More than 90 policy and rights groups around the world published an open letter on Thursday urging Apple (AAPL.O) to abandon plans for scanning children’s messages for nudity and the phones of adults for images of child sex abuse.
“Though these capabilities are intended to protect children and to reduce the spread of child sexual abuse material, we are concerned that they will be used to censor protected speech, threaten the privacy and security of people around the world, and have disastrous consequences for many children,” the groups wrote in the letter, which was first reported by Reuters.
The largest campaign to date over an encryption issue at a single company was organized by the U.S.-based nonprofit Center for Democracy & Technology (CDT).
Some overseas signatories in particular are worried about the impact of the changes in nations with different legal systems, including some already hosting heated fights over encryption and privacy.
“It’s so disappointing and upsetting that Apple is doing this, because they have been a staunch ally in defending encryption in the past,” said Sharon Bradford Franklin, co-director of CDT’s Security & Surveillance Project.
An Apple spokesman said the company had addressed privacy and security concerns in a document Friday outlining why the complex architecture of the scanning software should resist attempts to subvert it.
Those signing included multiple groups in Brazil, where courts have repeatedly blocked Facebook’s (FB.O) WhatsApp for failing to decrypt messages in criminal probes, and the senate has passed a bill that would require traceability of messages, which would require somehow marking their content. A similar law was passed in India this year.
“Our main concern is the consequence of this mechanism, how this could be extended to other situations and other companies,” said Flavio Wagner, president of the independent Brazil chapter of the Internet Society, which signed. “This represents a serious weakening of encryption.”
Other signers were in India, Mexico, Germany, Argentina, Ghana and Tanzania.
Surprised by the earlier outcry following its announcement two weeks ago, Apple has offered a series of explanations and documents to argue that the risks of false detections are low.
Apple said it would refuse demands to expand the image-detection system beyond pictures of children flagged by clearinghouses in multiple jurisdictions, though it has not said it would pull out of a market rather than obeying a court order.
Though most of the objections so far have been over device-scanning, the coalition’s letter also faults a change to iMessage in family accounts, which would try to identify and blur nudity in children’s messages, letting them view it only if parents are notified.
The signers said the step could endanger children in intolerant homes or those seeking educational material. More broadly, they said the change will break end-to-end encryption for iMessage, which Apple has staunchly defended in other contexts.
“Once this backdoor feature is built in, governments could compel Apple to extend notification to other accounts, and to detect images that are objectionable for reasons other than being sexually explicit,” the letter says.
Other groups that signed include the American Civil Liberties Union, Electronic Frontier Foundation, Access Now, Privacy International, and the Tor Project.
Reporting by Joseph Menn; Editing by Edwina Gibbs
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
Robinhood logo is seen on a smartphone in front of a displayed same logo in this illustration taken, July 2, 2021. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration
July 28 (Reuters) – Robinhood Markets Inc, the owner of the trading app which emerged as the go-to destination for retail investors speculating on this year’s “meme’ stock trading frenzy, raised $2.1 billion in its initial public offering on Wednesday.
The company was seeking to capitalize on individual investors’ fascination with cryptocurrencies and stocks such as GameStop Corp (GME.N), which have seen wild swings after becoming the subject of trading speculation on social media sites such as Reddit. Robinhood’s monthly active users surged from 11.7 million at the end of December to 21.3 million as of the end of June.
The IPO valued Robinhood at $31.8 billion, making it greater as a function of its revenue than many of its traditional rivals such as Charles Schwab Corp (SCHW.N), but the offering priced at the bottom of the company’s indicated range.
Some investors stayed on the sidelines, citing concerns over the frothy valuation, the risk of regulators cracking down on Robinhood’s business, and even lingering anger with the company’s imposition of trading curbs when the meme stock trading frenzy flared up at the end of January. read more
Robinhood said it sold 55 million shares in the IPO at $38 apiece, the low end of its $38 to $42 price range. This makes it one of the most valuable U.S. companies to have gone public year-to-date, amid a red-hot market for new listings.
In an unusual move, Robinhood had said it would reserve between 20% and 35% of its shares for its users.
Robinhood’s platform allows users to make unlimited commission-free trades in stocks, exchange-traded funds, options and cryptocurrencies. Its simple interface made it popular with young investors trading from home during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Robinhood enraged some investors and U.S. lawmakers earlier this year when it restricted trading in some popular stocks following a 10-fold rise in deposit requirements at its clearinghouse. It has been at the center of many regulatory probes.
The company disclosed this week that it has received inquiries from U.S. regulators looking into whether its employees traded shares of GameStop and AMC Entertainment Holdings, Inc (AMC.N) before the trading curbs were placed at the end of January.
In June, Robinhood agreed to pay nearly $70 million to settle an investigation by Wall Street’s own regulator, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, for “systemic” failures, including systems outages, providing “false or misleading” information, and weak options trading controls.
The brokerage has also been criticized for relying on “payment for order flow” for most of its revenue, under which it receives fees from market makers for routing trades to them and does not charge users for individual trades.
Critics argue the practice, which is used by many other brokers, creates a conflict of interest, on the grounds that it incentivizes brokers to send orders to whoever pays the higher fees. Robinhood contends that it routes trades based on what is cheapest for its users, and that charging a commission would be more expensive. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is examining the practice.
Robinhood was founded in 2013 by Stanford University roommates Vlad Tenev and Baiju Bhatt. They will hold a majority of the voting power after the offering, these filings showed, with Bhatt having around 39% of the voting power of outstanding stock while Tenev will hold about 26.2%.
The company’s shares are scheduled to start trading on Nasdaq on Thursday under the ticker “HOOD”
Goldman Sachs and J.P. Morgan were the lead underwriters in Robinhood’s IPO.
Reporting by Echo Wang and David French in New York; Editing by Leslie Adler
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
July 24 (Reuters) – Robinhood Markets Inc is considering launching U.S. retirement accounts, CEO and co-founder Vlad Tenev said on Saturday in a webcast with users of its trading app looking to participate in its initial public offering, which is set to price next week.
The online brokerage has about 18 million funded investment accounts on its platform, most of which are held by retail traders.
Offering individual retirement accounts (IRAs) and Roth IRAs, which offer tax advantages to those saving for retirement, would allow Robinhood to tap a vast market. Americans held $12.6 trillion in IRAs at the end of March, up 2.8% from the end of December, according to the Investment Company Institute.
“We are interested in building more account types, including IRAs and Roth IRAs, we’ve been hearing that a lot from our customers. We want to make first-time investors into long-term investors,” Tenev said in response to an investor question.
Due to the penalties involved in withdrawing money, IRAs tend to attract long-term investments, rather than the quick flip in stocks, options and cryptocurrencies that some investors turn to Robinhood for.
In his webcast, however, Tenev said: “We see evidence that the majority of our customers are primarily buy and hold.”
Robinhood, which is targeting a valuation of up to $35 billion in its IPO, has said it will allocate 20% to 35% of shares offered to its users, an unusual move for a high-profile offering. One of the reasons many IPOs enjoy a first-day trading pop is because the retail investors that Robinhood has invited are excluded and must buy shares in the open market.
Robinhood launched its IPO Access platform earlier this year to enable users to buy into the IPOs of other companies if it can negotiate deals with the investment banks handling them.
Some individual investors are calling for a boycott of Robinhood’s IPO on Reddit and other social media over its handling of the ‘meme’ stock-trading frenzy in January. Robinhood placed restrictions on buying GameStop Corp (GME.N) and other stocks that hedge funds had bet against, on grounds it was needed for the financial and operational stability of its platform.
Tenev said in Saturday’s webcast that Robinhood had invested in the stability of its platform to avoid another such incident.
PAYMENT FOR ORDER FLOW
Robinhood’s popularity has soared over the past 18 months of coronavirus-induced social restrictions that have kept many retail investors at home. It has said its mission is to “democratize finance for all” by allowing users to make unlimited commission-free trades in stocks, exchange-traded funds, options and cryptocurrencies.
The brokerage has been criticized for relying on “payment for order flow” for most of its revenue, under which it receives fees from market makers for routing trades to them and does not charge users for individual trades, however.
Critics argue the practice, which is used by many other brokers, creates a conflict of interest, on the grounds that it incentivizes brokers to send orders to whoever pays the higher fees. Robinhood contends that it routes trades based on what is cheapest for its users, and that charging a commission would be more expensive.
Robinhood chief financial officer Jason Warnick left the door open for the company to change the practice if necessary.
“If a ban or other limitations on it were to be imposed, we believe Robinhood and the industry would adapt and explore other revenue sources,” Warnick said.
Robinhood was founded in 2013 by Stanford University roommates Tenev and Baiju Bhatt, who will hold nearly two-thirds of the voting power after the offering, a filing with the stock exchange showed.
Robinhood customer Minjie Xu, who works as a software engineer in Missouri, remained unimpressed after the presentation on concerns the offering was overpriced.
“This is not unique to them, as I think most IPOs are overpriced,” Xu told Reuters.
Reporting by Echo Wang and Krystal Hu in New York
Editing by Greg Roumeliotis and Sonya Hepinstall
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
Customers enter a Zara shop in Nantes as non-essential business re-open after closing down for months, amid the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak in France, May 19, 2021. REUTERS/Stephane Mahe/File Photo
PARIS, July 1 (Reuters) – French prosecutors have opened an investigation into four fashion retailers suspected of concealing “crimes against humanity” in China’s Xinjiang region, a judicial source said on Thursday.
The procedure is linked to accusations against China over its treatment of minority Muslim Uyghurs in the region, including the use of forced labour, the source said.
China denies all accusations of abuse in the region.
The source told Reuters Uniqlo France, a unit of Japan’s Fast Retailing (9983.T), Zara owner Inditex (ITX.MC), France’s SMCP (SMCP.PA) and Skechers (SKX.N) were the subject of the investigation, confirming a report by French media website Mediapart.
“An investigation has been opened by the crimes against humanity unit within the antiterrorism prosecutor’s office following the filing of a complaint,” the source said.
France has a Central Office to Fight Crimes against Humanity, Genocide and War Crimes, founded in 2013.
Inditex said it rejected the claims in the legal complaint, adding that it conducted rigorous traceability controls and would fully cooperate with the French investigation.
“At Inditex, we have zero tolerance for all forms of forced labour and have established policies and procedures to ensure this practice does not take place in our supply chain,” the company said in a statement.
SMCP said it would cooperate with the French authorities to prove the allegations false.
“SMCP works with suppliers located all over the world and maintains that it does not have direct suppliers in the region mentioned in the press,” SMCP said, adding that it regularly audited its suppliers.
Fast Retailing said in a statement from Tokyo that it had not been contacted by French authorities and that none of its production partners are located in Xinjiang.
“If and when notified, we will cooperate fully with the investigation to reaffirm there is no forced labour in our supply chains,” it said.
The company lost an appeal with United States Customs in May after a shipment of Uniqlo men’s shirts were impounded because of suspected violations of a ban on Xinjiang cotton. read more
Skechers said it does not comment on pending litigation. It referred Reuters to a March 2021 statement in which it said it maintained a strict supplier code of conduct.
Two nongovernmental organisations (NGOs) filed a complaint in France in early April against multinationals for concealment of forced labour and crimes against humanity.
United Nations experts and rights groups estimate over a million people, mainly Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities, have been detained in recent years in a vast system of camps in China’s western Xinjiang region.
Many former inmates have said they were subject to ideological training and abuse. Rights groups say the camps have been used as a source of low-paid and coercive labour.
China initially denied the camps existed, but has since said they are vocational centres designed to combat extremism. In late 2019, China said all people in the camps had “graduated.”
Several Western brands including H&M (HMb.ST), Burberry (BRBY.L) and Nike (NKE.N) have been hit by consumer boycotts in China after raising concerns about reports of forced labour in Xinjiang. read more
In March, the United States, the European Union, Britain and Canada imposed sanctions on Chinese officials, citing human rights abuses in Xinjiang. Beijing retaliated immediately with its own punitive measures. read more
Human Rights Watch this year documented what it said could constitute crimes against humanity being committed in Xinjiang.
Reporting by Benoit Van Overstraeten in Paris
Additional reporting by Richard Lough in Paris, Jesus Aguado in Madrid and Rocky Swift in Tokyo.
Editing by Kirsten Donovan and Matthew Lewis
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
A 12-inch wafer is seen at Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC) in Hsinchu June 15, 2010. REUTERS/Pichi Chuang
July 2 (Reuters) – Apple Inc (AAPL.O) and Intel Corp (INTC.O) will be the first adopters of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co’s (2330.TW) next-generation chip production technology ahead of its deployment, possibly next year, Nikkei Asia reported on Friday.
Apple and Intel are testing their chip designs with TSMC’s 3-nanometer production technology, the report added, citing several sources briefed on the matter. Commercial output of such chips is expected to start in the second half of next year, Nikkei Asia said.
Reporting by Kanishka Singh in Bengaluru; Editing by Christian Schmollinger
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