Your commercial news round-up: Manchester City v Premier League, cyberattacks, ‘Big Mac’ trademark, animal testing

Reading time: four minutes

Manchester City launches legal action against the Premier League, while TikTok and Ticketmaster experience cyberattacks that may have compromised the personal data of millions of clients, including celebrities and brands. Plus, an Irish takeaway chain has won a major trademark battle against McDonald’s, and researchers are using AI to help reduce animal testing. Read this week’s commercial news round-up to find out more.

• Manchester City Football Club has taken unprecedented legal action against the Premier League over its commercial rules. The football club deems the league’s associated party transaction (APT) rules unlawful and plans to challenge them at the upcoming two-week private arbitration hearing, which begins on Monday. The APT rules were introduced in December 2021 to prevent clubs from inflating commercial deals with companies linked to their owners, requiring transactions to be evaluated independently to ensure fair market value. If successful, the club’s claim could allow other wealthy clubs to assess their sponsorship deals without independent scrutiny, significantly increasing the funds they can generate and consequently giving them more resources to invest in players. The action occurs just months before a Premier League disciplinary commission’s review of more than 100 charges against Manchester City, accusing the club of violating financial fair play rules – some dating back to 2009. The outcome of City’s legal action against the Premier League is said to impact not only the hearing about its alleged breaches but may also result in substantial fines for club owners. According to the BBC, neither the Premier League nor Manchester City have commented yet.
   
• Both Ticketmaster and TikTok have been hit by cyberattacks within the last week. Live Nation, Ticketmaster’s parent company, confirmed that there had been “unauthorised activity within a third-party cloud database”, which may have compromised the personal data of 560 million customers. A cybercrime group called ShinyHunters has claimed responsibility for the cyberattack, demanding a £400,000 ransom to prevent customers’ personal data, including names, addresses and partial credit card details being sold. According to the BBC, this is one of the biggest cyberattacks in history. The sensitivity of the data in the possession of cybercriminal remains uncertain. Meanwhile, TikTok is dealing with a cyberattack that targeted brands and celebrities, including reality TV star Paris Hilton and news outlet CNN. While the cyberattack is still under investigation, the short-form-video-sharing platform has said that the number of compromised accounts is “very limited” and is actively helping users to regain access to their accounts. This comes as the app faces a potential ban in the US over concerns that it poses a national security threat.
   
• Irish takeaway chain Supermac’s has won a nine-year legal battle against McDonald’s over the use of the Big Mac trademark. The European Court of Justice’s ruling now allows the Irish fast-food restaurant to open outlets across Europe while its US rival has lost the right to use the name ‘Big Mac’ in the EU for chicken burgers. The legal fight began in 2015 when Supermac’s tried to register its name as a trademark for restaurants in the EU. McDonald’s opposed the application, claiming the name was too similar to its Big Mac burgers and would confuse customers. The founder of Supermac’s said the ruling is a “significant victory for small businesses” against “trademark bullying” by multinationals. Meanwhile, McDonald’s stated the decision doesn’t affect its right to use the ‘Big Mac’ trademark worldwide and to “use or to protect the trademark against infringements”.
   
• AI is aiding researchers’ efforts to find an alternative to animal testing. The technology can analyse existing global animal data from previous tests, preventing unnecessary new tests. Senior research analyst at the Physicians Committee of Responsible Medicine, Joseph Manuppello, praised ChatGPT’s ability to extract and synthesise data, and help scientists to sift through decades of data to precisely locate the information they need. According to Thomas Hartung, AI is now involved in every stage of toxicity testing and represents an enormous leap forward in toxicology, enhancing accuracy and efficiency. However, the technology isn’t perfect at determining how safe a drug is and presents concerns such as data bias. According to the BBC, an example of AI’s imperfection is when an algorithm is primarily trained using health data from a single ethnic group. While the emerging technology can assess new chemical toxicity and provide preliminary insights quickly, the main challenge for AI testing is still regulatory approval.

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