Business

Merchants will now have to pay more fees to PayPal. The financial service provider has announced to increase fees that it charged to merchants. The hike is, however, applicable to some of its products. It is limited to the United States only. The increased merchant fees will come into effect from August 2. According to PayPal, it is making changes to fees as per the company’s pricing policy. It said that the revised rates are aligned with the services and products it offers. The rates are as per the value of the offerings. PayPal is a global digital payments platform. It is based in San Jose in California. The company is among the largest online payment processors in the world.

PayPal in a statement said that the company is committed to transparency in its services. It will inform the customers about revised rates. It has so far maintained a flat rate for sellers processing payments. The firm charged 2.9 percent of the transaction price. This is in addition to a 30-cent fee. The company underlined that the new rates will only apply to a portion of merchant customers. PayPal will charge higher rates for the newer products which include Pay with Venmo and PayPal Checkout. The company believes that 60 percent of the consumers using PayPal as a payment method convert than consumers who do not choose the platform for payments.

According to PayPal’s market assessment, the chances of consumers using the platform increases when PayPal is available at the time of checkout. It said that consumers use the platform three times more to complete the purchase. The recently announced Buy Now, Pay Later solutions also pushed the payment volume for business by more than 15 percent. Meanwhile, a US consumer watchdog has launched a probe into Venmo’s alleged unauthorized funds’ transfer. Venmo is a money transfer app. It is owned by PayPal. PayPal claims that it has approximately 392 million accounts that are active.

The COVID19 vaccine developed by Pfizer has been authorized for emergency use in Children in the US recently. The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has given a green signal to the vaccine that is going to be used in children who are as young as 12 years.  However, it seems that the schools in the US might not make vaccination mandatory for children to attend in-person classes anytime soon. Considering vaccine hesitancy among people and communities and political snags, schools might not require shots for children, said the experts. A law professor, Dorit Rubinstein Reiss from the University of California-Hastings has said that for the most part, state governments can mandate that a vaccine is required for children who are attending K-12 public schools. Dorit Rubinstein Reiss has been studying school mandates and legal issues related to vaccines. He has said that all states must pass a full legislature to be added to the compulsory vaccine list. She has informed that no state government has yet made vaccination mandatory for schools.  Dorit Rubinstein Reiss has said that it is very dubious that state governments will push towards making COVID19 vaccination mandatory for children who are attending schools this year. She has said that it is a political gambit and the legislature will not even try for making the COVID19 vaccine mandatory for children as young as 12 years until they are done with kids who are 5 years and above, as authorities do not want to go through the whole process twice.

There are clear signs that proponents of vaccination mandate might face strict opposition. As per the report, even before the COVID19 vaccine for children has been authorized for kids and teenagers in the US, many Republican lawmakers from dozens of statehouses filed petitions to halt COVID19 immunization mandates stating that shots are too new to compel people to take against their wish. Republican state Senator Mark Steffen who is also an anesthesiologist has made a bill that can strip the state’s health department of its authority to add a new vaccine to the current list of mandatory shots. However, the bill is still under review by the committee. During a hearing on the bill, Mark Steffen has said that it is an experimental vaccine that can be gene-altering. He has said that it can shoot up long-term risks that will not be known for decades. Experts from Harvard, Northwestern, Northeastern, and Rutgers Universities have done a survey in April that has included around 22000 people across the country. The survey has found that over a quarter of mothers have been extremely hesitant about vaccinating their kids. Harvard, Northwestern, Northeastern, and Rutgers Universities are part of the COVID States project as well. The president of the American Federation of Teachers union, Randi Weingarten has said that considering rising hesitancy and reluctance about vaccination, education leaders should not concentrate on making vaccines mandatory. She has said that at this time, people should be educated about the efficiency of vaccines. She has claimed that parents from minority ethnic communities should be educated about the efficacy of the vaccines, as they have faced the brunt of the pandemic the most.

Randi Weingarten and her colleagues have accepted the fact that vaccines are vital for normal school experience. Randi Weingarten has been representing school leaders and staff. Experts have said that the Los Angeles Unified school district that is the second largest in the US accommodating around 650000 students has been most upbeat on vaccinating their students. As per the report, nearly 15 vaccination sites are located in Los Angeles schools. Superintendent Austin Beutner has said that a vaccine should be accessible to all middle and high school students as soon as possible. There are some private schools that are going ahead with the vaccine mandates. St. Luke’s School in Connecticut, New Canaan has said that students who are in 5th to 12th grade must take the COVID19 vaccine to attend school in the fall. The head of St. Luke’s school, Mark Davis has said that the decision has been taken after consulting with a health task force that includes parents who are doctors. He has said that the school has made vaccines mandatory after considering the guidelines from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). It says that people who are fully vaccinated do not require isolation even if they are exposed to the SARS-CoV-2 virus. It means that kids can remain in the classroom in case of exposure to the virus if they are vaccinated with two doses.  Most parents and around 600 students have come forward in support of the mandate. However, there have been four or five families that have been a little hesitant about vaccinating their kids. Davis has said that he is well aware of the long history of mandated vaccines for ailments such as whooping cough and polio and the advantages of in-person learning. Many experts have said that it is shameful that some people have politicized the issue of vaccination in the US.

A dispute between ViacomCBS and former CBS chief executive officer Les Moonves over the severance package has been mutually resolved. Moonves had to leave the company in 2018 following allegations of sexual harassment and assault. Moonves had resigned from the post of CEP and chairman of the CBS group. He was denied the severance package after a board of the company investigated allegations and concluded that Moonves had violated company policies. The CBSE board said that he not only breached his employment contract but intentionally did not cooperate with the ongoing investigation. Following the outcomes of the month-long investigation, Moonves decided to challenge the company’s decision in 2019. USD 120, which was meant as the severance package, has been held in a grantor trust since then. Now the amount will be transferred back to ViacomCBS. It must be noted that CBS was merged with Viacom in 2019.

A joint statement issued by Moonves and ViacomCBS said, “The dispute between parties – Moonves, CBS, and a contractor of CBS – has been resolved. According to people familiar with the development, law firm Covington & Burling will pay the cost of the settlement fees to Moonves. However, the amount has not been disclosed. In the joint statement, Moonves said that the settlement amount will be donated to charities. For the uninitiated, Covington & Burling and Debevoise & Plimpton were hired by the company to investigate the allegations against Moonves and find out whether he violated the terms of his employment.

After the investigation, CBS’s board of directors had said that “there are ground to terminate.” “He not only violated policies of the company and breached his employment contract but also willfully failed to cooperate with the investigation.” Moonves was accused by several women, during the span of several years, of sexual misconduct and how he used his authority to retaliate if someone resisted. However, he always denied any wrongdoing. Moonves was one of the highest-paid executives in the United States for several years. There were times when he earned more than USD 50 million in a year. He was also one of the most powerful figures in the entertainment industry for over 30 years. According to Forbes, his estimated net worth in 2015 was at USD 700 million. After the merger with Viacom, the company became ViacomCBS and is now controlled by chairman Shari Redstone.

Chinese smartphone maker Xiaomi has reached an agreement with the Biden administration. The US Department of Defense has agreed to remove Xiaomi from the list of blacklisted firms. This will undo a decision by the Trump administration that blacklisted over 40 Chinese companies. This had barred Americans from investing in the Chinese giant. The US government had designated Xiaomi as a Communist Chinese military company. It had also blocked the company from doing business in the country. The decision was taken in January ahead of Joe Biden’s inauguration as the President of the United States. Xiaomi had in January filed a lawsuit against the ban.

The decision to delist Xiaomi from the blacklisted firms saw its shares jumping over 6.5 percent. The company in a regulatory filing confirmed the pact. It said that parties have agreed to resolve the litigation. They don’t want contested briefing. It added that Xiaomi and Pentagon will together work on a joint order. The order will be submitted to the court by May 20. The latest agreement comes after Xiami’s partial relief from the court in March. A court had in March ordered to temporarily halt the ban slapped on Xiaomi. The company had expressed confidence that will win a full reversal in the court. Xiaomi had said that it is a publicly-traded and independently managed corporation. It had categorically denied any link to the Chinese military.

Xiaomi had in March said that it only manufactures and offers consumer electronics products. Its products and services are for civilian and commercial use. The company said that it is committed to following international rules and working with global partners. It vowed to offer innovative technology to the world. Xiaomi said that its objective is to help people spend a better life with the adoption of innovative technology. It wants to make people’s life easier by bring new technologies. Xiaomi said that it is committed to guarding the interests of its customers and shareholders as well. In July 2020, dozens of Chinese telecom firms were tagged as a threat to America’s national security and its communications networks. The firms included Huawei, ZTE, and others.

WhatsApp has been ever since it announced a new controversial privacy policy. Facebook, which owns WhatsApp, even faced criticism for forcing users to accept the new policy. It recently extended its May 15 deadline but told users that they will start losing features if they don’t accept the new term. Now Facebook has been asked by a German regulator to stop processing any data from WhatsApp Users. The Hamburg Commissioner for Data Protection and Freedom of Information, or HmbBfDI has issued an emergency order in this regard. The order prohibits the social media giant’s European operations from processing data from WhatsApp for its own use for three months. There are around 60 million users of WhatsApp in Germany. It said that new policies of WhatsApp are illegal under European privacy law.

Mark Zuckerberg-owned company has been looking for ways to monetize WhatsApp. In January this year, WhatsApp announced a new privacy policy. The new policy of the instant messaging app gives the company more power to share the data of users with its parent company Facebook. The social media giant had acquired WhatsApp for USD 19 billion in 2014. WhatsApp told users that they will have to ultimately accept the new norms if they wish to continue using the app. Some reports suggest that WhatsApp has been sharing some data with Facebook since 2016. But it now wants to share payment and transaction data as well. Due to this privacy policy, its competitors like Signal and Instagram have seen a sudden surge in the number of users.

According to Johannes Caspar of the HmbBfDI, the updates are not legal. “The three-month order has been passed with the intent to safeguard the rights and freedom of millions of WhatsApp users in Germany. It is very important to stop the damage associated with such black box procedure,” he said in a statement. Caspar said that incidents like Cambridge Analytica shows that data of social media users are at risk. Commenting on the order, a WhatsApp spokesperson said that the order has no legitimate basis as it is based on a fundamental misunderstanding. “We are fully committed towards the safety of our users’ data and will continue to private communications for everyone.”

Pandemic impacted almost everything last year. The one industry that is most affected is apparently aviation. Most of the airports wear a deserted look most of the time in 2020. Amid this, Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport lost its title of being the world’s busiest airport to China. The airport in the biggest city in Georgia has now fallen to the second position in the list of busiest airports. According to a report of 2020 by Airports Council International World, a Chinese airport is on the top of the list now. As per the report, Guangzhou Bai Yun International Airport emerged as the busiest airport of 2020. It received the maximum number of passenger flights during the year when the coronavirus pandemic hit the world.

Reports suggest that Atlanta was on the top of the list for almost 22 years. But it lost around 61 percent of its passengers in 2020 when compared to the previous year. This downfall in passenger traffic was primarily because of the COVID-19 outbreak in 2020. “The coronavirus pandemic brought the movement of passengers to a virtual standstill last year. Most of the airports faced an existential threat,” said ACI World Director General Luis Felipe de Oliveira. Felipe said that the finding of the report suggests that the impact was uneven. “Different regions witnessed different challenges. They even required different policy decisions,” he said.

Atlanta saw the biggest fall in the number of passengers. ACI said that the airport received 42.9 million passengers last year. This was less than half of 110.5 million in 2019. Guangzhou too saw a decline in passenger numbers. But the Chinese city logged 43.7 million passengers last year. The airport was at 11the position in the 2019 list. It received 73.3 million passengers that year. ACI in the report said that passengers at the 10 busiest airports globally decreased by around 48 percent. Overall, the decline in the number of passengers was more than 65 percent.

Apple has been asked to whopping USD 308.5 million for infringing a patent. The tech giant has been asked to pay the amount to Personalized Media Communications LLC (PMC). The decision is related to the digital rights management of the company. The company has been directed by the jurors to pay a running royalty to it. The royalty is usually based on the sales of a service or product. Personalized Media Communications is a licensing firm and had sued Apple in 2015. The firm alleged that iTunes of the tech giant infringed seven of its patents.

Apple had challenged the case filed by the PMC at a patent office in the United States. But in March last year, an appeals court paved the way for the trial by reversing the decision. The iPhone has not immediately commented on the development. However, Apple told a media organization that it was disappointed by the ruling. The company is reportedly planning to appeal against the ruling. The tech giant said that cases like these not only stifle innovation but also harm consumers. “It is very discouraging. When companies like these, which neither make nor sell any products file cases, it ultimately harms consumers. This needs to be checked for the overall benefit of our consumers,” Apple was quoted as saying in a report.

It is worth mentioning that Texas-based Personalized Media Communications has an infringement case pending against several other companies. These companies include Google, Netflix, and even Amazon. Earlier in January last year, Apple and Broadcom were ordered to pay USD 1.1 billion for infringing patents on Wi-Fi technology of the California Institute of Technology. According to lawyers for CalTech, Apple had to pay USD 837.8 million. Broadcom was ordered to pay USD 270 million. These technology companies were sued over a range of patents. These patents were related to wireless data transmissions. Reports suggest that it was the sixth-largest patent verdict ever.

Despite things returning back to normal, job cuts are something that many sectors are still witnessing. The latest job cuts have been announced by Volkswagen. The German automaker has said that it will cut thousands of jobs in Germany by offering older employees partial retirement. People privy with the development said that positions would be cut across various plants of company in Germany. This would be done under the retirement plan that was announced by Volkswagen earlier. Earlier there were some reports that the carmaker is planning to cut at least 5,000 jobs.

The carmaker said that a plan has been agreed upon with the work council. The company in a statement also said that it would offer partial early retirement to those employees who were born from 1956 to 1960. The early retirement plan will cost Volkswagen hundreds of millions of euros. The carmaker has not disclosed any figures and refused to comment on the development. A person privy with the development said that it would cost around USD 598 million to Volkswagen. The German car manufacturer said that around 900 employees are expected to the offer of early retirement.

The company said that according to its estimate, a few thousand will go for partial retirement. There are reportedly 120,000 people working in plants of the carmaker in Germany. Volkswagen also that the hiring freeze would continue and has been extended to the end of 2021. Earlier, it had announced that it would continue till the end of the first quarter. The development comes days after the carmaker lost the number 1 position in the world of being the largest carmaker to Toyota. The company reportedly sold around 9.5 million vehicles globally in the last year to grab the first. This was slightly more than 9.3 vehicles sold by Volkswagen in the same period. For the uninitiated, Volkswagen has 12 brands which include Seat, Audi, and Porsche.

Taking serious note of password sharing, Netflix has started a new test that tells borrowers to create their own accounts and sign in using them. The test is fully blocking users from using the shared account. The testing is meant to stop people from sharing passwords with people who are not members of the same household. The message sent by Netflix reads, “You must sign in from your account to continue watching Netflix if you are not living with the owner of this account.” The message promoted users to sign up for ‘free today.’ Commenting on it, a company spokesperson said that Netflix keeps doing ‘hundreds’ of such tests every year with select customers.

The streaming giant in a statement said that these tests are being done to make sure that people using Netflix accounts are authorized to use it and have not borrowed it from anyone else. The test could simply be a part of account security and may not lead to a crackdown on those using the passwords of others. According to a research firm, there is around 33 percent of users share their login passwords with at least one another person. Netflix does not give the option of screen sharing in its basic plan. However, the standard plan of the company allows users to watch Netflix on two screens simultaneously. While the basic plan costs USD 8.99 per month, the standard plant can cost USD 13.99.

So far the company has not done anything to stop users from sharing passwords. This is because the huge growth in subscribers along with the growing stock price is enough to offset any concern related to loss of revenue. Earlier this year, Netflix announced that it has topped over 200 million subscribers. The growth is despite the strong competition from other such platforms including AT&T’s HBO Max, Disney+, ViacomCBS’s Paramount+, and NBCUniversal’s Peacock. This is extremely important for the company as most of the players started making their presence felt during the lockdown.

Goggle and Microsoft are loggerheads over the bill that would make media organizations make a deal with teach giants over how their content is distributed. The search engine giant has now accused Microsoft of undercutting a rival by ‘breaking the way the open web works.’ This has reignited the long-dormant row between the two companies. Microsoft has cleared its stand over the matter and said that it is full-heartedly supporting the proposed Australian law. The tech giant made it clear that its stand on the law is not going to change even if Facebook and Google oppose it. Also, Microsoft president Brad Smith recently appeared for a hearing over the content distribution law.

Smith, in a lengthy blog post, argued that it has become extremely difficult for media organizations to monetize the traffic as most of the profit is take away by Google. “Google has in a sense transformed itself into the main destination for news. This has helped Google owning the relationship with the reader and also relegating available news content to a commodity input,” he said in the post. Responding to it, Google senior vice-president of global affairs Kent Walker said that the move by Microsoft is nothing but ‘naked corporate opportunism.’ Walker accused Microsoft of doing everything to break the way the open web has been functioning. “It is doing so just to undercut a rival,” he said.

The two companies are known rivals for years and often fight through antitrust cases. But both the companies reached an agreement in 2016 and agreed to withdraw all competition complaints. At the moment, these companies are competitors on fronts like search, cloud computing, video conferencing, and email, among other areas. The companies have once again locked horns as the bipartisan bill has been reintroduced. The bill seeks to shift commercial power from tech platforms to the struggling news organization. The bill has been introduced weeks after a similar law was approved by Australia. The bill has been supported by Microsoft.

Some of the biggest airlines in the United States have decided to cancel thousands of furloughs after the House passed the stimulus package earlier this week. The landmark package has earmarked a fixed budget for them. The package has averted thousands of job losses that were eminent because of the pandemic. The support will help airlines to pay employees their payments. American Airlines has informed around 13,000 employees that the furlough warning issued last month has been canceled. The information shared in a form memo circulated by president Robert Isom and chief executive officer Doug Parker.

“This is for or 13,000 colleagues who received notification regarding worker adjustment and retraining last month. We are delighted to say that those are happily canceled. You can now tear them up!” the leadership of the airline said in the memo. Similarly, United Airlines has withdrawn furlough notices issued to 14,000 employees. The furloughs were supposed to into effect next month. The announcement regarding the furloughs was made by airlines in 2020. They made the announcement in anticipation that the CARES Act won’t be renewed as there was a leadership change in the United States. But with the stimulus package announced by Congress, these airlines have now a ray of hope and are taking measures to makes sure that no one losses a job.

As part of the relief bill, the airline industry will get USD 1 billion for the eligible contractors and USD 14 billion to support workers. The relief bill makes sure that these companies won’t fire any employees through September 30. Airlines have been at the receiving end ever since the coronavirus pandemic struck. The pandemic-led lockdown grounded all the flights which resulted in huge losses to the industry. International Air Transport Association has estimated that the global revenue losses for the industry in 2020 were something between USD 63 billion and USD 113 billion. The IATA also said that the industry will take at least three years to reach pre-pandemic levels.