Your commercial news round-up: Meta, competition law, Morrisons, Russian oil

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• Meta (previously called Facebook) has decided to pull the plug on its podcast business after a year and will remove it from its platform on Friday 3 June. Facebook, one of Meta’s subsidiaries, also plans to stop its short-form audio product soundbites and terminate its central audio hub. The social media platform’s focus has shifted to other initiatives. In an email, a Meta spokesperson said: “We’re constantly evaluating the features we offer so we can focus on the most meaningful experiences”. Last year, Facebook changed its name to Meta to separate its work on virtual reality technologies and the Metaverse. Don’t fret, the LawCareers.Net podcast is sticking around with recent episodes on pupillage applications and LGBTQ+.
   
• Two days ago, the European Commission accused Apple of abusing its position in the market to break the law on contactless payments. The EU Commission argued that Apple has broken competition law by preventing its competitors from accessing the contactless technology. If the charges are true, Apple could be fined £29.2 billion, based on last year’s revenue. However, the tech giant has denied all allegations and will cooperate with the commission. It’s not an LCN news round-up if a tech giant isn’t being accused or fined!
   
• In retail news, Morrison’s new owner has proposed selling 87 petrol stations forecourts. Luckily, the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has given the British grocer the green light to sell these petrol stations. Colin Rafferty, senior director of mergers at the CMA, said: "The sale of these petrol stations will preserve competition and prevent motorists from losing out due to this deal, which is particularly important when prices have recently hit record highs.” Those who have been following the Morrison’s takeover via LCN News, then you know that Clayton, Dubilier & Rice, the private equity firm, bought the retail giant last year in a £7 billion takeover.
   
• The EU has suggested a ban on all oil imports from Russia, the world’s biggest exporter of oil and petroleum products. The EU’s proposal is intended to remove the Sberbank, Russia’s biggest bank, from the SWIFT international payments network, according to CNN. However, the proposal hasn’t gone to plan as some EU countries like Hungary have requested an extension and were offered “an extra year to ditch Russian oil.” European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen admitted a ban on Russian oil won’t be easy, “But we simply have to work on it. We will make sure that we phase out Russian oil in an orderly fashion, to maximize pressure on Russia, while minimizing the impact on our own economies."

Check the News every Thursday for this weekly commercial news round-up.

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