Law & Regulation

New York city is the latest U.S. city to bring a lawsuit against Purdue Pharmaceutical and other companies involved in manufacturing and distributing prescription painkillers, known as opioids. Some 250 such lawsuits have been filed alleging that deceptive industry marketing practices have caused opioid overdose deaths to skyrocket. Read More

Uber, the global taxi technology company, has been using a clandestine tool named "Ripley" to thwart government oversight of the ride-sharing company by restricting access to company computers. The tool is named after Ellen Ripley, the heroine of Alien, the science fiction movie series. Read More

Takata, the Japanese auto parts maker, will pay a $1 billion fine to the U.S. government after pleading guilty to hiding information about the likelihood that the company’s car air bags could accidentally explode. Takata air bags have been linked to at least 17 deaths around the world. Read More

Nine recommendations for action by President Obama to reverse his deadly legacy of drone warfare, surveillance and entrapment, including revealing flawed government contracts with companies like AT&T & Yahoo. Read More

UBS, the Swiss bank, is being investigated by the Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission for failing to carry out adequate due diligence before working on share offerings for several Chinese companies. The bank says that it is at risk of being suspended from doing business in the city. Read More

Police departments across the U.S. pay AT&T, the telecommunications giant, over one hundred thousand dollars a year for special access to telephone records of clients without first obtaining a warrant. The program is called 'Hemisphere' and the company required buyers to keep its existence secret. Read More

Representatives of some 280 indigenous nations have joined a protest on the Standing Rock Sioux reservation in North Dakota to oppose the construction of an oil pipeline by Energy Transfer Partners. If completed, the Dakota Access Pipeline is expected to help move 570,000 barrels of crude daily to Illinois. Read More

Six executives of Swiss pharmaceutical giant Novartis have been indicted in a South Korean bribery scandal. The indictments follow similar charges in China, Turkey and the U.S. and allegations of falsifying drug trial data in Japan. Korean prosecutors have recommended that Novartis sales be suspended for six months. Read More

Cairn Energy, a Scottish oil exploration company, has demanded that India pay $5.6 billion in compensation for losses that the company claims it has sustained as a result of a tax bill. The company has taken its claim to an arbitration panel under the United Kingdom-India Investment Treaty. Read More

Gilead Sciences Inc., a California based pharmaceutical company, has avoided paying $10 billion in taxes by moving its patents to Ireland. This is despite the fact that one of its most profitable drugs was developed with U.S. taxpayer money, according to a new report from Americans for Tax Fairness. Read More