Your commercial news round-up: Meta outage, monthly rent, Scotch, Tesla

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Meta is close to resolving a major social media blackout that affected thousands of users and the UK rental market continues to see soaring prices. Meanwhile, in Scotland, First Minister John Swinney has been lobbying President-elect Donald Trump to exclude Scottish whisky from proposed US tariffs, while Elon Musk's electric car company Tesla has been pushing the UK government to increase costs for petrol car drivers. Read on for details of this week’s highlights.

• Meta, the parent company of Instagram, Facebook and WhatsApp, has stated that it’s close to resolving a social media blackout that affected its apps. The blackout, which occurred on Wednesday, resulted in thousands of complaints from users across the social media platforms. Monitoring website Downdetector cited 23,445 reports of Facebook outages, 11,466 for Instagram and 18,646 for WhatsApp across Britain. Meanwhile, in the US, the platforms were said to have been largely unaffected. In the same evening, Meta issued an update stating that it’s nearly resolved the issue and apologised to those affected. However, this wasn’t the first time this year that Meta services have experienced worldwide outages – in March, Facebook and Instagram faced severe issues, including login difficulties and stalled feeds.
   
• ​Renting a newly let property in the UK is now £270 more expensive per month than before the pandemic, according to property portal Zoopla. The surge in rent prices is due to high demand from tenants following the lifting of lockdown restrictions and a limited supply of available properties. While the average monthly rent now stands at £1,270 – or £15,240 – per year, the rate at which rents are rising has slowed as potential tenants are facing affordability constraints. One reason for this may be because the average earnings haven’t kept pace with the steep rise in rents over the past three years. The rental market has been highly competitive due to high demand, with a large number of prospective tenants vying for each available property. Some applicants have even offered several months' rent upfront or written CV-style letters to agents to gain an advantage. The executive director of research at Zoopla, Richard Donnell, said: “With more renters than there are homes to rent, people are seeking out the best value for money.” Zoopla predicts that rents will rise by an average of 4% next year, as demand continues to outstrip supply.
   
• Scotland's First Minister John Swinney lobbied President-elect Donald Trump to exclude Scottish whisky from his plans to increase tariffs on imports to the US. The Scottish whisky industry is concerned that its trade with the US, worth more than $1 billion a year, will be heavily impacted by the proposed tariffs. Swinney highlighted the economic and cultural significance of whisky during a “warm and friendly” phone call with Trump, who has close family and business ties to Scotland. The Scotch Whisky Association estimated that previous tariffs imposed on Scotch during a trade dispute with the EU cost the industry at least £600 million ($765 million) in lost sales. Despite being suspended for five years, the tariffs are set to resume in 2026 unless Trump takes action. In addition, Trump has proposed across-the-board tariffs on nearly all foreign imports, which has raised concerns among Scotch producers. Historically, the US is the biggest market for Scotch but exports have fallen by 8.5% since 2019 due to rising living costs and competition in the spirits market. The looming tariffs are likely to further reduce this figure.
   
• In a similar vein, Elon Musk’s electric car firm Tesla has lobbied the UK government to increase costs for petrol car drivers in the days following the Labour Party's general election victory. While the CEO of the car firm has been vocal about British politics on his social media platform X and criticised Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer, his firm has called for the extension of a policy that would boost electric car sales to include lorries. In addition, Tesla suggested that subsidies for electric vehicles (EVs) could be funded by charging those buying petrol and diesel cars. Earlier this year, the company's European boss, Joe Ward, wrote a letter to the roads minister stating that “the government should ask those still choosing to purchase a new polluting vehicle, to pay more”. The letter also called for the Zero Emission Vehicle (ZEV) mandate, which requires carmakers to sell a certain number of EVs per year, to be “protected and strengthened”. UK carmakers are currently pushing for the policy to be diluted, arguing that customers aren’t buying enough EVs but Tesla stands to benefit from the ZEV mandate as it can sell surplus credits from its own EV imports.

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