The Federal Trade Commission on Thursday announced it had referred a complaint against Snap Inc. to the Department of Justice, alleging the social media company's AI-powered chatbot is harmful to young users.

The complaint isn't public, but the commission made the unusual move of announcing its referral because it determined it's in the ...Read more

The Federal Trade Commission will ban General Motors Co. from sharing customer geolocation and driver behavior with consumer reporting agencies for five years under a newly proposed order settling the commission's allegations.

This is the FTC's first action related to connected vehicle data, according to a news release. The agency alleged that ...Read more

U.S. Bancorp ended its year with hefty earnings strengthened by higher fees and disciplined spending, as executives predicted revenue growth of up to 5% this year.

The Minneapolis-based company that runs U.S. Bank, the fifth-largest bank in the nation, delivered net income of $1.75 billion for the last three months of the year, up 7% from the ...Read more

American Express Co. will pay about $230 million to resolve a long-running investigation into some of the firm’s prior sales practices which regulators said misled small-business owners.

Amex reached agreements with federal prosecutors and the Federal Reserve to settle the allegations, according to statements from the parties involved.

The ...Read more

A U.S. ban on ByteDance Ltd.’s TikTok is poised to be delayed with a deadline for the sale of the app falling on a holiday weekend and President-elect Donald Trump’s incoming administration pledging an extension.

President Joe Biden’s administration is not planning to intervene before a Jan. 19 deadline for TikTok’s U.S. arm to find a ...Read more

California Gov. Gavin Newsom extended price gouging protections on rental housing Thursday amid calls for authorities to prosecute landlords jacking up rent in the wake of Los Angeles County's devastating fires.

Under California law, price gouging protections kick in during a state of emergency and generally bar landlords, hotel and motels from...Read more

UnitedHealth Group beat estimates for fourth quarter profit as the Eden Prairie, Minnesota-based health care giant released its first earnings report since the fatal ambush last month of top executive Brian Thompson in New York City.

Despite the earnings result, the company’s stock price fell in early trading Thursday as its massive ...Read more

Heavy promotion and sales drew people into Target stores over the holidays, boosting comparable sales by 2% as people bought apparel and toys to put under the tree, the retailer said Thursday.

While not robust compared with past holiday seasons, it beat the Minneapolis-based retailer’s guidance of flat sales and is a much better performance ...Read more

China has failed to break a deflationary cycle and is now on track for the longest streak of economy-wide price declines since the 1960s, analysts say, exposing a key vulnerability likely masked by a growth upswing at the end of last year.

Deflation persisted for the second straight year in 2024, official data due Friday is set to show, ...Read more

Uber alleges in a new lawsuit that two Colorado laws aiming to improve transparency for delivery and ride-hailing app drivers will violate its right to free speech.

Senate Bill 75 and House Bill 1129, both passed and signed into law last year, mandate that ride-hailing and delivery companies like Uber, Lyft and DoorDash show their drivers how ...Read more

Although Hollywood production rallied in the last three months of 2024, it was not enough to turn around last year's industry-wide slump, according to a new report.

Overall production from October to December increased 6.2% compared with the same period a year earlier, according to a report released by the nonprofit organization FilmLA, which ...Read more

An app built on an off-the-grid ranch in rural Sonoma County, California, supported by solar panels, satellite internet service and a small nonprofit team, is serving as a critical tech hub for free, fast and reliable information to help victims of the catastrophic Los Angeles fires — and future disasters.

The fire-tracking app Watch Duty, ...Read more

Trade organizations representing builders, developers and building owners joined Washington Gas & Light in filing a lawsuit Monday challenging Maryland’s emissions reduction requirements for large buildings.

The suit alleges that Maryland’s regulation requiring buildings of at least 35,000 square feet to reduce their globe-warming emissions...Read more

LOS ANGELES — Felipe Ortega has spent 38 years — more than half of his life — working at Gladstones in Pacific Palisades. He started as a busboy and worked his way to bartender and maintenance worker. But for the foreseeable future, the 64-year-old is out of a job.

A week after flames damaged the restaurant and destroyed huge swaths of ...Read more

Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison is suing iconic tractor manufacturer John Deere over farmers’ rights to repair their own machines.

Citing the frustration of farmers who are forced to rely on authorized dealers to fix broken-down tractors, Ellison joined the Federal Trade Commission and the Illinois attorney general in charging Deere ...Read more

State Farm said Wednesday that it will offer renewals to residential policyholders affected by the Los Angeles County fires that it had previously planned to drop.

The decision applies to policies held by homeowners, owners of rental dwellings and residential community associations, which include condominium associations.

The figure includes ...Read more

Two South Bay executives who temporarily escaped prosecution over alleged H-1B visa fraud are back in the hot seat again, after an appeals court reversed a lower-court ruling that tossed out their indictment.

The criminal charges against Namrata Patnaik of Saratoga and Kartiki Parekh of Santa Clara must be reinstated, a three-judge panel in the...Read more

Year-end jet orders and deliveries figures released Tuesday by Boeing reveal how much Airbus dominated its crisis-ridden U.S. rival in 2024.

In the smaller narrowbody jet sector that services domestic and intermediate-range flights, Airbus delivered 602 of its A320neo jet family aircraft while Boeing delivered just 260 of the 737 Maxes that ...Read more