Google demoted rival shopping services and paid €2.42B for the privilege
Google placed its own shopping results above rivals’ in search for a decade. The EC fined it €2.42B, and the General Court upheld the decision in 2021.
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3,222 PUBLISHED CASES · REGULARLY UPDATEDHandy told gig workers they could earn $60 an hour — the FTC sent $2.7M back to them
The home-services platform advertised earnings that most workers never achieved, and hid fees and fines that drained millions from their wages.
Read the caseHavas joined the Big Six ad cartel on brand safety — the FTC made it the last to settle
Six agencies agreed not to compete on brand safety standards, demonetising disfavoured viewpoints and insulating themselves from market pressure.
Read the caseKodak invented the digital camera — then the film business drowned it
Kodak owned photography for a century, invented the digital camera in 1975, filed for Chapter 11 in 2012. Tech came from inside; refusal from the top.
Read the caseMothercare closed all 79 UK stores when its lease-heavy model met Amazon — 2,800 jobs lost
Mothercare had 400 UK stores in 2007, cut to 79, and still lost £36M. Administration in November 2019 closed the chain.
Read the caseShutterstock's subscription dark patterns hid auto-renewal — $35M FTC settlement
Shutterstock charged consumers without informed consent, buried auto-renewal terms in fine print, and forced users to phone or email to cancel.
Read the caseTruHeight sold a height pill with fake reviews and bot testimonials — the FTC made it stop
Employees wrote thousands of 5-star reviews, bots posed as real customers, and the 'clinically proven' claim had no science behind it.
Read the caseXponential Fitness misled franchisees on costs and executive lawsuits — $17M
Xponential Fitness claimed franchisees could open in six months when it took over a year, and hid a CEO sued for fraud from disclosure forms.
Read the caseTesco's beef burgers contained horsemeat it could not trace
Tesco sold beef burgers that were up to 29% horsemeat, exposing a long European supply chain that neither the retailer nor regulators could fully trace.
Read the caseWizz Air's "one of the greenest choices" ad was banned for greenwashing.
Wizz Air claimed to be "one of the greenest choices in air travel" until the UK ASA banned the ad for failing to prove the comparison.
Read the caseHermès and Exor spent 15 years building a Chinese luxury brand, then wrote it off
Hermès co-founded Shang Xia. Exor took majority in 2020; its audited books show the equity and €118M of loans written off within five years.
Read the caseTarte's Shape Tape Foundation launched in 15 shades — after Fenty reset the bar to 40
The most-hyped foundation of 2018 shipped with three shades for deep skin. The brand admitted it had rushed — the launch date had beaten the range.
Read the caseLIXIL bought Grohe for €3bn — and inherited a China unit cooking its books
LIXIL's 2014 Grohe deal carried Joyou AG, a Chinese plumbing maker overstating its accounts since 2008. Joyou went bust in 2015 and cost LIXIL ¥66.2bn.
Read the caseHonda concentrated production in Thailand — the 2011 floods cut its global output in half
Three months of flooding shut Honda's Thai plants from October 2011. The Thai plant was 4.7% of global output; US and Canadian lines ran at 50% for months.
Read the caseDeutsche Bank's $14B in fines and 18,000 job cuts — the investment bank ate the rest
A decade of fines for Libor, mortgage securities and money laundering. The stock fell from €100 to under €7. In 2019 it cut 18,000 jobs and exited equities.
Read the caseToyo Tire faked the safety data on earthquake bearings in 154 buildings
Toyo Tire sold seismic rubber that did not meet safety standards, then certified it as if it had. 154 sites, including hospitals, got the bad bearings.
Read the caseRaytheon recorded bribes as commissions and paid the SEC $124M
Improper payments to foreign officials were booked as legitimate vendor expenses — the controls over agent due diligence did not exist.
Read the caseHelloFresh made €369M in the pandemic — then lost €136M when kitchens reopened
Revenue peaked at €7.7B in 2024, then fell. Stock dropped 46% in a day. Japan lasted eight months. Italy and Spain were abandoned. Losses returned.
Read the caseElanco called channel-stuffing 'strong demand' and paid the SEC $15M
Quarter-end rebates and extended payment terms filled distributors' warehouses — Elanco told investors the growth was consumer demand.
Read the caseAlstom ran a decade of bribery to win power contracts and pleaded guilty for $772M
For a decade Alstom funnelled ~$75M in bribes through consultants to win power contracts abroad. In 2014 it pleaded guilty and paid a $772M penalty.
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