San Francisco Chronicle - (Sunday)
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In a week when Apple gave iTunes its swan song, this also happened: Wells Fargo reached a $386 million deal to settle a class-action lawsuit brought by customers who say the bank forced them to buy unnecessary auto insurance. The agreement would resolve a lawsuit filed in July 2017, shortly after the New York Times published the results of an internal report the bank had commissioned on the matter. The report found Wells Fargo had for years been buying a certain kind of auto insurance from National General Insurance and applying it to auto loan customers’ accounts without their knowledge. Wall Street loved some tech stocks and hated others. Shares of San Francisco’s DocuSign fell 12% Friday, a day after it reported an adjusted loss of 7 cents a share. Zoom, the San Jose video software maker, rose 18% Friday after beating analysts’ expectations.
Smoothie King closed two of its North Carolina stores and two workers were fired after racist names were added to two customer receipts in Charlotte stores. Photos of the receipts were posted on Twitter. In one instance, an employee listed a racial epithet as the customer name. On the other, a Korean customer was listed as “Jackie Chan.” Former San Francisco women’s and teens’ clothing company Charlotte Russe opened five stores, but none in the Bay Area. After filing for bankruptcy in February, Charlotte Russe was purchased by Canadian fashion brand YM Inc. in March, with plans to open a 100 stores this year. The new stores are in malls in Michigan, Georgia, New Jersey and Pennsylvania. YM also relaunched the retailer’s online store this week.
Russia is requiring Tinder to hand over data on its users — including messages — to the national intelligence agencies, part of the country’s widening crackdown on internet freedoms. The dating app’s owners will have to cooperate with Russian authorities or face being blocked in the country. The rule would apply to any user’s data that goes through Russian servers, including messages to other people.
Insys Therapeutics agreed to pay $225 million to settle federal criminal and civil charges that it illegally marketed a highly addictive fentanyl painkiller to doctors, prosecutors said. A subsidiary will plead guilty to five counts of mail fraud, and the company will pay a $2 million fine and $28 million in forfeiture.