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Business Wire
3 days ago
- Business
- Business Wire
Citizens for Judicial Fairness Slams Excessive Delaware Chancery Fees Following New Stanford Report
WILMINGTON, Del.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Citizens for Judicial Fairness today responded to a new Stanford study from renowned professor Joseph Grundfest that shows Delaware's Chancery Court has become a national outlier in awarding excessive legal fees. The report, which analyzed thousands of cases, found that Delaware hands out attorney fee multipliers at a rate up to 57 times higher than federal courts – with some attorneys being paid as much as $35,000 an hour. The findings were highlighted in The New York Times' DealBook newsletter, and arrive as more companies continue to question Delaware's value as the 'gold standard' for corporate law. Citizens for Judicial Fairness released the following statement in response to the study: 'This study confirms what we've been saying for years: Delaware's Chancery Court is more interested in enriching lawyers than serving shareholders or protecting everyday investors. Two judges, Chancellor Kathaleen McCormick and Vice Chancellor Travis Laster, are responsible for a majority of these outrageous fee awards, and must be reined in so that litigants in Delaware's courts can have reasonable fee expectations. The pattern is clear: corporate insiders and well-connected firms are cashing in while Delaware's reputation burns. Delaware lawmakers can't look the other way anymore. These payouts aren't normal, and they aren't defensible. They're part of a system that's increasingly out of step with every other court in America. It's time for serious reform – and if Delaware won't fix it, the market will.' The Stanford paper shows that two judges alone account for over 60% of the supersized awards, which often exceed ten times the base legal fee. In some cases, lawyers were paid nearly $50,000 an hour after inflation adjustment. No federal judge has ever come close to authorizing these kinds of fees. Citizens for Judicial Fairness has long advocated for transparency, common-sense reform, and balance in the state's corporate legal system, and has warned that if left unchecked, judicial overreach will drive companies, jobs, and corporate revenue out of Delaware.
Boston Globe
29-04-2025
- Business
- Boston Globe
White House attacks Amazon over idea of showing tariffs' cost
Displaying the import fees would have made clear to American consumers that they are shouldering the cost of President Donald Trump's tariff policies rather than China, as he and his top officials have often claimed would be the case. An Amazon spokesperson said the company had considered a similar idea on part of its site, Amazon Haul, which competes with Temu, a Chinese retailer. Temu primarily ships directly to consumers and has begun displaying 'import charges' to reflect the end of a customs loophole that had exempted low-priced items from tariffs. Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up 'Teams discuss ideas all the time,' the spokesperson, Ty Rogers, said in a statement. He said it was never under consideration for the main Amazon site, adding, 'This was never approved and is not going to happen.' Advertisement . — CSPAN (@cspan) Standing beside Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent during a briefing at the White House on Tuesday morning, Leavitt tore into the retailer. She said that she had just been on the phone with the president about the report, and she asked why Amazon hadn't done such a thing when prices increased during the Biden administration because of inflation. Leavitt said it was 'not a surprise' coming from Amazon, as she held up a copy of a 2021 article from Reuters with the headline, 'Amazon partnered with China propaganda arm.' Advertisement Trump's aggressive tariffs on Chinese goods have touched off an escalating trade war, even as his administration has backed off its broader global levies amid what it said were negotiations with dozens of nations on new trade deals. Leavitt's attack on Amazon was all the more noteworthy because the company's founder, Jeff Bezos, has lately gone to great lengths to curry favor with this White House. Amazon donated $1 million to Trump's inaugural fund, securing seats for Bezos and his bride-to-be in the Capitol Rotunda for the inauguration. In December, Bezos explained his Trump-ward turn while speaking at The New York Times DealBook conference. 'What I've seen so far is he is calmer than he was the first time,' Bezos said of Trump, 'more confident, more settled.' He added, 'I'm very hopeful. He seems to have a lot of energy around reducing regulation.' Leavitt was asked whether the White House still considered Bezos to be a Trump supporter, given the latest report. 'Look, I will not speak to the president's relationships with Jeff Bezos,' Leavitt said, 'but I will tell you that this is certainly a hostile and political action by Amazon.' This article originally appeared in .
New York Times
29-04-2025
- Business
- New York Times
White House Assails Amazon, Citing Tariff Pricing Report
There's a fresh spat brewing between the White House and Amazon. Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary, on Tuesday accused the online retail giant of being 'hostile and political,' citing a report — disputed by Amazon — from Punchbowl News saying that the company would start displaying the exact cost of tariff-related price increases alongside its products. Displaying the import fees would have made clear to American consumers that they are shouldering the cost of President Trump's tariff policies rather than China, as he and his top officials have often claimed would be the case. An Amazon spokesman said the company had considered a similar idea on part of its site, Amazon Haul, which competes with Temu, a Chinese retailer. Temu primarily ships directly to consumers and has begun displaying 'import charges' to reflect the end of a customs loophole that had exempted low-priced items from tariffs. 'Teams discuss ideas all the time,' the spokesman, Ty Rogers, said in a statement. 'This was never a consideration for the main Amazon site and nothing has been implemented on any Amazon properties.' Standing beside Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent during a briefing at the White House on Tuesday morning, Ms. Leavitt tore into the retailer. She said that she had just been on the phone with the president about the report, and she asked why Amazon hadn't done such a thing when prices increased during the Biden administration because of inflation. Ms. Leavitt said it was 'not a surprise' coming from Amazon, as she held up a copy of a 2021 article from Reuters with the headline, 'Amazon partnered with China propaganda arm.' Mr. Trump's aggressive tariffs on Chinese goods have touched off an escalating trade war, even as his administration has backed off its broader global levies amid what it said were negotiations with dozens of nations on new trade deals. Ms. Leavitt's attack on Amazon was all the more noteworthy because the company's founder, Jeff Bezos, has lately gone to great lengths to curry favor with this White House. Amazon donated $1 million to Mr. Trump's inaugural fund, securing seats for Mr. Bezos and his bride-to-be in the Capitol Rotunda for the inauguration. In December, Mr. Bezos explained his Trump-ward turn while speaking at The New York Times DealBook conference. 'What I've seen so far is he is calmer than he was the first time,' Mr. Bezos said of Mr. Trump, 'more confident, more settled.' He added, 'I'm very hopeful. He seems to have a lot of energy around reducing regulation.' Ms. Leavitt was asked whether the White House still considered Mr. Bezos to be a Trump supporter, given the latest report. 'Look, I will not speak to the president's relationships with Jeff Bezos,' Ms. Leavitt said, 'but I will tell you that this is certainly a hostile and political action by Amazon.'
Yahoo
28-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Spotify takes on YouTube by paying podcasters for video views
So far in 2025, Spotify has paid podcasters more than $100 million, a big payout for creators. Spotify first shared that figure with The New York Times Deal Book, which says the funds have two purposes: to give podcasters a new way to monetize content and to lure both creators and audiences away from YouTube, which dominates video podcasting. The company first announced its new Spotify Partner Program in November 2024, promising creators "audience-driven payouts" from ads and premium subscribers. At the same time, Spotify also revealed that some subscribers would be able to watch video content "uninterrupted by ads." Now, we know how much more some popular podcasters are earning. In a press release, Spotify said "total earnings for participating creators [increased] 23% month-over-month from January to February, and 29% month-over-month from February to March." "Ultimately, Spotify is committed to building a sustainable ecosystem where creators can thrive. This $100 million payout is just one step in that journey. We'll continue to invest in new tools, resources, and programs to support creators in all formats, and we're excited to see what the future holds for podcasting on Spotify," the company said in its press release. It makes sense that Spotify is paying up. Increasingly, people are more interested in watching their podcasts than they are in listening to them, which has a lot of users gravitating toward YouTube rather than Spotify. According to data from Edison Podcast Metrics, weekly podcast listeners are more likely to watch podcasts on YouTube (31 percent) than listen to them on Spotify (27 percent). The New York Times also reports that YouTube's podcasting audience (1 billion) dwarfs Spotify's (170 million). As podcasts shift to video, Spotify has somehow lost its grip on podcast listeners. However, it still hosts some of the most popular podcasts, including The Joe Rogan Experience, What Now? With Trevor Noah, and The Comment Section with Drew Afualo.
New York Times
28-04-2025
- Business
- New York Times
Canada Votes, With an Eye on Trump's Trade Policies
Canada chooses a leader to take on Trump Canadians vote on Monday to determine which political party forms their next government. But President Trump's tariff assault on Canada and his vow to annex the country and make it the 51st state have turned the federal election into a referendum on which of the two contenders — Prime Minister Mark Carney of the Liberal Party or Pierre Poilievre, leader of the Conservatives — can best handle the American president, Ian Austen writes for DealBook. The only English-language election debate last week opened with the moderator asking Carney, who has been the prime minister for just over a month, what the 'starting point' would be for talks with the Trump White House. 'The starting point has to be one of strength,' Carney responded. Both candidates have promised a tough response. Trump's belittling of Canada's sovereignty and his tariffs, which have already led to layoffs and concerns about factory closings, have prompted a surge of patriotism among Canadians and open hostility toward the United States — the country's largest trading partner. In sharp contrast with Mexico's approach of dealing with Trump, both Carney and Poilievre have vowed to fight back. Here are the strategies they've campaigned on: Neither candidate has gotten specific. Carney says his experience as a central banker and in private investment (he has a doctorate in economics, worked at Goldman Sachs and was chairman at Brookfield Asset Management and at Bloomberg) makes him the ideal negotiator and economic crisis manager. Poilievre, who was campaigning on crime, taxes and high prices for food and housing before the tariffs and before the election was called, has not focused as directly on the trade war. Polls show the Liberals slightly ahead of the Conservatives in the popular vote, but the Liberals are likely to have a strong majority of the seats in the House of Commons to form the next government. We'd like to know how the tariffs are affecting your business. Have you changed suppliers? Negotiated lower prices? Paused investments or hiring? Made plans to move manufacturing to the U.S.? Or have the tariffs helped your business? Please let us know what you're doing. China's Huawei reportedly develops a new A.I. chip to take on Nvidia. It's meant to compete with Nvidia's most advanced semiconductor; TikTok parent Bytedance is among those in discussions to place orders, The Wall Street Journal reported. It's the latest example of Beijing's push to move away from U.S. technology in the face of export controls. America's academic leaders make a stand against President Trump. After the White House froze billions in federal funding for leading universities, a group has formed to counter the president's broad attacks, with more than 400 college leaders signing a letter opposing Trump's moves to audit curriculums and oversee hirings. Meanwhile, a private collective of top universities has banded together to plot strategy, according to The Wall Street Journal. Gordon Brown lodges a criminal complaint against Rupert Murdoch's papers. The former British prime minister alleges he has been a 'victim of the obstruction of the course of justice' by Murdoch's U.K. papers, as the phone hacking scandal that forced the closure of one of the media mogul's tabloids and led to a split of his empire, continues. His U.K. company has denied the accusations. A game of telephone There's more confusion on Monday about the state of U.S.-China tariff talks, as new data shows that global trade has begun to falter and jittery investors brace for a huge earnings week. The latest: Beijing on Monday outright denied President Trump's claim that Xi Jinping, China's leader, called him to discuss their tit-for-tat trade clash. Trump told Time last week that they had in fact spoken, and that talks were progressing. Beijing's statement comes after Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, who has become a point person on trade negotiations, told ABC's 'This Week' on Sunday that he wasn't aware of whether the two leaders had spoken. Who to believe? Companies are focusing their attention on Wall Street and Washington. Several business leaders have used the earnings-call spotlight to warn about tariffs. The hope is that the message may reach Trump administration officials, adding to pressure on the White House to find an off-ramp with trading partners. That said, Trump pushed back on the notion that he was swayed by restive bond holders in deciding earlier this month to pause implementation of reciprocal tariffs. 'The bond market was getting the yips, but I wasn't,' Trump told Time. Meanwhile, the trade fallout worsens. Cargo shipments between the two countries have plummeted, and Temu, the popular Chinese retailing app that's been hit especially hard by Trump's tariffs, has jacked up costs for U.S. customers, Bloomberg reports. Economists have forecast that the levies could reignite inflation and ding economic growth, while retailers have begun to warn it could lead to empty store shelves. That puts extra focus on a big week for earnings and economic data. What's in store: Big Tech earnings have fueled a slew of market rallies over the past two years, and Google's Alphabet and Tesla helped give stocks a boost last week. Can the tech giants keep the streak alive, or will trade-war tensions prevail? The latest in the content wars: Spotify vs. YouTube Spotify has paid more than $100 million to podcast publishers and creators since January, Jessica Testa is first to report for DealBook. The payout is the result of a program introduced this year that opened up new revenue streams to eligible hosts. But it is also an attempt to draw more creators (and their audiences) to Spotify, as the rise of video podcasting has driven many of them to YouTube. Video has come to dominate podcasting. More than half of Americans over the age of 12 have watched a video podcast — but primarily on YouTube, according to an Edison Research report from January. The service claims to reach 1 billion podcast consumers every month, making it the dominant platform for podcasts — a media king and kingmaker — and leaving onetime audio-only platforms like Spotify and Apple Podcasts in the dust. (Spotify introduced video podcasts in 2019.) Compared with YouTube, Spotify has become a podcast underdog, with about 170 million monthly podcast listeners among its total audience of 675 million. One indication of how far Spotify has to go to catch up to the top player: YouTube paid out more than $70 billion to creators and media companies from 2021 to 2024. The company reports earnings tomorrow and is expected to make about 540 million euros in pretax income on 4.2 billion euros in sales, according to S&P Capital IQ. But Spotify remains a major player in the industry thanks in part to its talent roster — it distributes and sells advertising for the biggest podcast in the world, 'The Joe Rogan Experience.' And it achieved its first full year of profitability in 2024. (Rogan's podcasts are also available on YouTube.) The new partner program aims to chip away at YouTube's dominance. Spotify previously paid creators only by sharing advertising revenue with them, much like YouTube. Now it also gives them incentives to upload videos, with eligible creators earning additional money based on how much premium subscribers engage with their videos. The company is trying to attract more viewers. At the same time that Spotify announced the partnership program in November, it announced that paid subscribers in certain markets wouldn't have to watch dynamic ads in video podcasts. Video consumption has already increased by more than 40 percent since January, according to Spotify. Can Spotify persuade creators to shift priorities? David Coles, host of the horror fiction podcast 'Just Creepy: Scary Stories,' said he is re-evaluating his 'home platform' after his Spotify revenue recently surpassed his YouTube revenue. Last quarter, Coles said he received about $45,500 from Spotify. After joining the company's new partner program, his quarterly Spotify income rose to about $81,600. This increase can be even more dramatic for larger shows and podcast companies, like YMH Studios, a comedy network with 2.1 million YouTube subscribers that produces popular podcasts including '2 Bears, 1 Cave.' While declining to share exact figures, YMH Studios said its quarterly Spotify revenue more than tripled after joining the partner program. Although creators emphasized that these are still early days, Alan Abdine, the head of advertising revenue at YMH Studios, called the new payment program 'a game-changer' and 'a very happy surprise.' 'Our parent company, Paramount, is trying to complete a merger. The Trump administration must approve it. Paramount began to supervise our content in new ways. None of our stories has been blocked, but Bill felt he lost the independence that honest journalism requires. No one here is happy about it.' — Scott Pelley, the '60 Minutes' correspondent. He delivered an extraordinary on-air rebuke last night during the news program's first episode since the resignation of Bill Owens, who had led the award-winning CBS program since 2019. Paramount, which owns CBS and is led by Shari Redstone, is now in mediation with President Trump over his $20 billion lawsuit against CBS News. It comes as Redstone is seeking government approval for her company's merger with Hollywood studio Skydance. Artificial Intelligence Politics, policy and regulation Best of the rest
