Your commercial news round-up: Everton FC, Newcastle United shirts, Tesla lawsuits, TikTok photo space

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As the moon passed between the sun and the earth on Monday, those in North America experienced a rare phenomenon: a solar eclipse. Millions of people gathered to witness the event with the path of totality spanning parts of Mexico, eastern Canada and 13 US states. While we all marvel at the pictures and hastily google “when will the next total solar eclipse be visible in the UK?” (not until 2090 apparently!), what else has been happening this week? Read on to find out!

• Everton FC has been deducted a further two points for a second breach of the Premier League financial fair play rules. Clubs are permitted to lose £105 million over three years under the profit and sustainability rules, and Everton was found to have breached that by £16.6 million for the three-year period to 2022/23. The most recent sanction comes after the club was deducted 10 points (reduced to six on appeal) in February this year for the three-year period to 2021/22. As a result, the team now sits in 16th place – just two points above the relegation zone. According to the club, it plans to appeal the two-point deduction.  
  
  In addition, 777 Partners has reportedly delayed its takeover of the football club to late next month as it pushes to raise the funds.
   
• In more football news, Sports Direct has claimed that Newcastle United’s proposal to sell its 2024/25 season shirts exclusively through JD Sports is “unlawful”. While Thomas de la Mare KC, the barrister representing Newcastle United, said that Sports Direct hasn’t produced any evidence to show the deal would harm competition and that there’s no evidence to support the claim, Sports Direct’s barrister Tony Singla KC has described the proposed deal as an “abuse”, “anti-competitive” and “unlawful”. Singla said the deal could result in Newcastle fans “losing faith in the credibility of the store”. Newcastle’s barrister called the deal a “tripartite” arrangement between the football club, its shirt manufacturer Adidas and JD Sports – an arrangement that’s been common “in the market for up to 10 years without attracting attention”. Sports Direct CEO and former Newcastle owner Mike Ashley is seeking an injunction from the Competition Appeal Tribunal to prevent the deal.
   
• Tesla has agreed to settle a lawsuit relating to the death of Apple engineer Walter Huang in 2018 after his Model X Tesla, which was operating in Autopilot mode, crashed into a highway barrier. The electric car giant had previously claimed that Huang had misused the autopilot system because he was playing a video game prior to the accident. Details of the settlement haven’t been released and still requires approval from a judge. A series of other lawsuits have been brought against Tesla in relation to crashes involving the alleged use of its driver-assistant technology.
  
  Meanwhile the company’s CEO Elon Musk last week announced plans to unveil a self-driving robotaxi in August. These movements come as the electric vehicle maker has been cutting prices in response to increased competition from rivals and share value has fallen by almost one-third since the start of the year.

• The final story this week looks at the battle between social media giants, TikTok and Instagram. TikTok has revealed that it’s working on creating a “dedicated space” for images and text on the platform, rivalling Instagram. Moves like this are not uncommon in this space – in 2020 we saw Instagram launch Reels – and Mike Proulx, a research director at analysis firm Forrester, said when done well, the “copycat phenomenon” pays off, noting Instagram’s decision to introduce ‘Stories’, a similar concept to Snapchat’s main offering.

According to the BBC, TikTok users have been receiving notifications explaining that their photo posts will be shared to a new ‘TikTok Notes’ app unless users opt out. The final design for the ‘TikTok Notes’ app is yet to be finalised and a release date is unconfirmed. Talking about photo-sharing apps, social media consultant Matt Navarra said: “We have plenty of them, so I don’t think there’s that demand out there necessarily.”

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