Kim Kardashian v Missguided, LGBT pay gap, Boeing pay out: your commercial news round-up
updated on 04 July 2019
It’s been a rough week: Glastonbury is over for another year, England’s Lionesses were knocked out of the World Cup by the USA and to top it all off, Facebook and Instagram have been hit with a glitch that prevents images from loading on the social media sites. Don’t worry – our commercial news round-up is the only type of scrolling you’ll need to do today. Find out what’s happened this week:
- The US outpost of fast fashion brand Missguided has paid Kim Kardashian-West £2.1 million in damages after she accused the company of ripping off her designer clothes as soon as she had worn them. The brand didn’t defend itself in court and has also been banned from using the reality star’s “trademark in connection with the sale, marketing or distribution of its products”.
- Christine Lagarde has become the first woman nominated to run the European Central Bank (ECB). Lagarde was the first woman to chair international law firm Baker McKenzie, the first woman finance minister from a Group of Seven nation and the first woman to lead the International Monetary Fund (IMF). The announcement comes as many top positions in the EU are coming up for grabs, including the role of European Commission President which is currently held by Jean Claude Juncker. Meanwhile, former Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne has become the bookmakers’ favourite to succeed Lagarde as managing director of the IMF.
- A survey this week has found that LGBT+ employees earn £6,700 less than their heterosexual colleagues. The 16% pay gap was discovered by a YouGov poll of 4,000 staff published to mark the end of Pride month. The survey also found that there was a pay gap of 14% for transgender employees against cisgender colleagues.
- Aircraft manufacturer Boeing will pay out £80 million to families and communities affected by the two 737 Max crashes which killed 346 people. Boeing is currently facing several lawsuits over the accidents, but the pay outs will be separate to any legal proceedings. Some of the money will go towards covering the living expenses of the families involved.
- William Hill announced today that it plans to close 700 stores, putting 4,500 jobs at risk. The bookmaker blames the closures on the government’s decision earlier this year to reduce the maximum stake on fixed-odds betting terminals from £100 to £2.
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