Amazon hit with whopping $887 million fine by
European privacy regulators
30 Jul, 2021 13:57
The Amazon app is seen on a smartphone in this illustration taken July 13, 2021 © Reuters / Dado Ruvic
Amazon has been handed an $888 million fine by European Union regulators for breaching the bloc’s data protection laws. The fine is the largest issued by the EU, but is still less than one percent of the firm’s annual revenue.
The Luxembourg National Commission for Data Protection (CNPD) issued the fine earlier this month, and Amazon reported it on Friday in a filing to the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
The CNPD issued the fine claiming that Amazon had processed customer data in violation of the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), a tough privacy law that took effect in 2018. Amazon disputed the fine, calling it “without merit,” and stating that the firm would “defend ourselves vigorously in this matter.”
“There has been no data breach, and no customer data has been exposed to any third party,” Amazon added in a statement. “These facts are undisputed. We strongly disagree with the CNPD’s ruling.”
The fine is the largest penalty to date issued for a GDPR violation. The largest fine issued beforehand was a $57 million ruling against Google by French regulators in 2018. Nevertheless, while $887 million would be a staggering amount of money for most companies, for Amazon it represents a tiny slice of the firm’s annual takings. With sales buoyed by the closure of brick and mortar outlets during the coronavirus pandemic, Amazon recorded more than $383 billion in sales last year, enough to pay the EU fine 431 times over.
Under the GDPR, watchdogs like the CNPD can fine companies up to 4% of their annual global sales.
Amazon will appeal the fine, but even if the company loses, it can afford to shrug off nearly a billion dollars. However, the EU is also investigating Amazon for potentially breaking antitrust rules over its alleged use of data from third-party sellers to more strategically price its own products. Similar probes have been brought by Germany and the UK, and in the US, lawmakers from both parties have proposed using antitrust legislation to break up tech monopolies like Amazon and Google.
Mexico won’t be ‘hostage’ to Big Pharma, president says, as internet
predicts trouble after country rejects Covid jabs for kids
31 Jul, 2021 10:46
Social media users have theorized that President Andres Manuel López Obrador could face severe repercussions after he refused to purchase Covid vaccines for children, vowing that Mexico wouldn’t bow to pressure from drugs firms.
In remarks made earlier this week, the Mexican leader said his government was still waiting for the scientific community to demonstrate the benefits of vaccinating minors. Until conclusive evidence was provided, Mexico would refuse to purchase jabs for children, Obrador announced, adding that...
pharmaceutical firms seemed to be focused more on making profits than on
ensuring medical necessity as they rake in record sales from Covid-19 vaccines.
Mexico will not be held hostage by pharmaceutical companies that only want to do business and scare children with the idea that it is necessary to vaccinate against Covid-19.
He was similarly critical of plans by drugs companies to introduce third- or even fourth-dose booster shots, opining that the jabs could be “superfluous.”
Speaking on the same topic, Undersecretary for Health Hugo López-Gatell claimed there was “no scientific evidence” showing the jab was “essential” for minors, given the high rate of inoculation among the adult population, Excélsior, Mexico City’s second-oldest daily, reported.
Mexico has approved a range of Covid vaccines for emergency use, including shots developed by Pfizer, AstraZeneca, Johnson & Johnson, and Sinovac, as well as Russia’s Sputnik V.
The country’s Health Ministry recently revealed that a minimum of 48% of Mexicans have received at least one vaccine dose.
Like many other countries, Mexico rolled out its inoculation program in phases, giving high-risk groups first priority. Currently, those under 18 are not included in the vaccine drive.
Largely ignored by international media, Obrador’s provocative remarks went viral after an English-subtitled video of his speech was shared across social media.
Several comments hailed the Mexican president’s “cajones” for calling out Big Pharma greed. Pfizer, for example, has boasted record profits and recently raised full-year sales estimates for its vaccine to $45 billion.
Others shared more conspiratorial reactions to Obrador’s comments. Numerous observers theorized that the Mexican president was exposing himself to potential harm or an “accident” by criticizing Big Pharma firms in such a blunt and direct manner.
With 45 billion dollars a year on the line, one life lost seems like a good deal. It's just my humble opinion, but I think JFK, RFK, MLK, and Pope John Paul (In God's Name - David Yallop) were murdered for a lot less.
While Mexico doesn’t feel comfortable administering the shot to youngsters, many other countries have begun to offer the vaccine to minors, both in clinical trials and as part of inoculation drives. According to the Mayo Clinic, around 14% of Americans under 18 have received at least one Covid shot.
Pfizer, Moderna, hike prices for their Covid jabs by up to a quarter for the EU
1 Aug, 2021 19:04
© REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration
Pfizer has reportedly raised the price of its Covid vaccine dose by a quarter, with Moderna also ramping up the price in its latest deal with the European Union. The two are making tens of billions of dollars in pandemic profits.
According to the Financial Times, which has seen contracts between the two pharmaceutical companies and the EU, Pfizer's latest price for one vaccine dose was €19.50, or around $23 – up by four euro from the previous unit price of €15.50 euro.
Meanwhile, Moderna's latest price is around €21.50 ($25.50) per dose, up from the previous price of €19 ($22.60). Despite this, the Moderna price is still lower than previously expected – $28.50 – because of the EU purchasing more doses.
Pfizer and Moderna – which earn a profit from the vaccines, unlike AstraZeneca, which is sold at cost – have pulled in tens of billions of dollars from the vaccines, with Pfizer forecasting $33.5 billion in revenue from its doses in this year alone. The forecast is up $7.5 billion from its previous prediction in the last quarter.
The previous story used the forecast number of $45 billion.
Moderna, though behind Pfizer in sales, is forecasting $19.2 billion in Covid-19 vaccine revenue for 2021.
Russia’s Sputnik V vaccine still hasn’t been approved by the European Medicines Agency (EMA) despite having been registered in 69 of the world's countries to date, including EU members Hungary and Slovakia.
And yet, nobody is doing double-blind studies on Ivermectin which is almost free. Why?
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How Michael Calvey went from billion-dollar Moscow investor
to facing years behind bars in a Russian jail
1 Aug, 2021 10:24
By Gabriel Gavin, in Moscow
One morning in February, back in 2019, Michael Calvey got a knock on the door of his Moscow apartment. The American financier may have been an influential poster-boy for foreign investment in Russia, but the police didn’t care.
Accused of dodgy dealing, the businessman was locked up in the notorious Matrosskaya Tishina prison, on the outskirts of the Russian capital, within days. After months of appeals he was released, first to house arrest in his upmarket residential building and, later, he was allowed to go out subject to curfew rules. Despite that, Calvey’s life has gone from business meetings and investment opportunities to legal proceedings and the ever-looming threat of jail time. Now, that two-and-a-half-year-long battle might be coming to a head, and his team expects to hear a verdict on Monday.
Along with three other executives from Baring Vostok, the $3.7-billion investment firm he founded, Calvey is facing charges of embezzlement and fraud. Prosecutors claim he was at the center of a scheme to pocket 2.5 billion rubles (US$34.3 million) from Russia’s Vostochny Bank as part of a high-stakes transaction, with officials claiming Calvey and his associates had overestimated the value of an asset as part of a loan scheme. The authorities are seeking a six-year suspended prison sentence, while the businessmen insist that they are innocent and the charges have been trumped up by corporate rivals.
In his final remarks in court last month, Calvey said that “the evidence that the prosecution presented to the court and that was examined during the trial not only does not incriminate me in any crime, but confirms my innocence and the innocence of my colleagues.” According to him and his lawyers, official appraisals show that there was no fudging of the figures and that they’ve only ever been honest and transparent in their multi-billion dollar transactions.
Honest and transparent in Moscow! Whoever heard of that?
The trouble started, they said, when their firm became embroiled in a legal dispute with Vostochny Bank, owned by high-powered businessman Artem Avetisyan. The tycoon had previously been appointed head of the new business division at the Agency for Strategic Initatives, chaired by Russian President Vladimir Putin. Baring Vostok brought the case against the investment fund in a British court, claiming hundreds of million dollars in damages over the alleged stripping of assets from a jointly-owned company. The arrests, Calvey and his fellow executives say, were designed to prevent them from effectively trying the case in London.
After a Russian court ruled in favor of Avetisyan and Vostochny Bank over a separate dispute in 2019, the firm said it would no longer be pressing criminal charges against the leadership of Baring Vostok. However, prosecutors have continued unabated and, according to Calvey’s team, have taken an apparent absence of evidence for embezzlement as a sign that there was a coverup.
What makes the case remarkable is that Calvey was a clear success story for foreign investment in Russia. Passionate about the country as a burgeoning marketplace, he largely steered clear of domestic politics in a country that was not his own and appeared frequently to tout its financial prospects at major events like the annual St Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF).
In addition, under his leadership, Baring Vostok has plowed cash into Russia’s star businesses, such as tech giant Yandex. Moscow business daily Vedomosti described the financial firm as “the symbol of direct investment in Russia” and, according to the company’s figures, it has invested more than $2.5 billion in mid-sized Russian firms and startups, many of which have plans to go global if they can attract enough capital.
A number of prominent officials and business executives have since rallied around Calvey and his colleagues, while the American has sought to portray the dispute as an existential issue for investment in the country. According to Calvey, a ruling in his favor would be a sign that the country is a safe destination for business. “It would not be an exaggeration to say that such a positive decision by the court could bring Russia billions of dollars in new investments, adding thousands of jobs,” he said in a statement, and has insisted he wants to remain in Russia and continue his work after the case is settled.
While Calvey and his advisers have consistently portrayed him as an apolitical figure, solely interested in opportunities in Russia as an emerging market, the financier has also served on the Board of Directors of The Atlantic Council, viewed in Moscow as a rabidly anti-Russian, NATO-aligned lobby group. He was invited to join in 2009, when relations between Russia and the West were far better than they are today.
In 2019, the Russian Ministry of Justice designated The Atlantic Council as an “undesirable organization,” effectively banning it from operating in the country. He has, however, reportedly had no involvement since 2016. While sources say he was intent on balancing the Atlantic Council’s strongly anti-Moscow standpoint, this would have been an ill-fated task, given the body relies on that posture for its funding.
I wonder from whom their funding comes?
For Calvey’s team, even being found criminally liable for a lesser sentence – even one without jail time – would be considered a defeat, given such a verdict would be a black mark against the names of Baring Vostok executives when it comes to corporate affairs. For the prosecutors, a long-lasting and controversial case ending without a conviction, even of an administrative offense, would draw into question the basis of the charges and the decision to pursue them. In short, there is a tough standoff that will be difficult to resolve and leave at least one side feeling poorly served by the courts.
What is clear is that, while the fate of Calvey and his colleagues hangs in the balance, far broader debates around foreign investment in Russia and the rule of law are only just beginning.
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