Those marketeers for multi-national companies whose products are deemed unsafe, unhealthy or over-priced can celebrate the result of the recent EU vote on the secret Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership agreement (TTIP) between the USA and Europe.

The European Parliament voted last week in favour of the agreement by a majority of 436 to 241 This agreement includes the right for corporations to sue governments for trading losses, if these are a result of government legislation, even if the legislation has been put in place to protect the public’s safety, health or their pockets. Continue reading →

The British Academy of Songwriters, Composers and Authors (BASCA) along with the Musician’s Union and trade association UK Music 2009 Ltd have obtained a High Court ruling making it illegal once again for consumers to copy CDs, DVD’s or e-books for personal use.

The ruling overturns a UK government regulation, now deemed to be unlawful by the High Court, legally allowing such copying. This came into force ten months ago on October 1st. The unions and trade association (the Claimants) wanted the High Court to rule that anyone copying for personal use in this time should still be deemed to have illegally infringed copyright, even though they had done so lawfully. That is they wanted the July 2015 ruling to apply retrospectively from October 2014, presumably so that they could then take legal action against lots of law-abiding consumers. Continue reading →

Food company Nestle in India has had to destroy £32 million of its Maggi instant noodles – the Indian answer to Pot Noodles – after the authorities there deemed the levels of lead found to be dangerous, and also found flavour enhancer monosodium glutamate not stated in the declared ingredients.

Nestle, the world’s largest food company, are challenging the findings in court. Last year Maggi was voted one of India’s top five most trusted brands.

The BBC is anxious to extend its compulsory and legally-enforceable TV licence fee charge to those only viewing catch-up systems, such as BBC iPlayer and ITV Player, on lap-tops, tablets or phones, and currently exempt.

The BBC are concerned that an estimated 1,000 households a day say they have got rid of their television sets and are refusing to pay the annual £145.50 licence fee, a total of 500,000 households so far creating a potential loss to the BBC of more than £70 million.

The corporation is cutting 1,000 jobs, more than 5% of its workforce, in response.

Wonder if the management of the “local” Little Waitrose stores, part of John Lewis, would ever guarantee to price match against their own big brother Waitrose main stores?

We ask this noting that some prices charged in Little Waitrose outlets are far higher for the same item than those charged by a large Waitrose. As an example one favourite product of ours is the 150 gramme jar of Waitrose own brand crisp and sweet cocktail gherkins, sold at the Waitrose in Swaffham, Norfolk for £1.19. The same item is on sale at Little Waitrose in Tottenham Court Road for £2.09, or more than 80% more. Continue reading →

Texas-based grocery store chain Whole Foods Market Inc., which has 413 stores in North America and nine in the UK has admitted overcharging its customers, again.

Last year Whole Foods agreed to pay $800,000 (£515,500) in penalties after overcharging in California stores. This year the problem was detected in its New York stores, where an investigation by the New York City Department of Consumer Affairs found mislabelled weights on packages of all 80 of the products they checked. Continue reading →

Those wanting to help airports make even more money out of them can opt to buy their currency at airport kiosks just before they fly, rather than shopping around for it in the days before they go.

A recent article in The Daily Telegraph showed that those using airport kiosks could get around £9 worth of euros or dollars more on every £100 exchanged if they instead used specialist outlets or online traders, or £90 on £1000. Almost as good were retailers like Marks and Spencer, and even some banks. Continue reading →

The three most popular British meals in Britain are, in descending order, fish and chips, a roast dinner with Yorkshire pudding and a fry-up breakfast.

This is the result of a survey commissioned for the Discover Cornwall food and drink guide, which placed at positions four to ten bacon butties, apple crumble, strawberries and cream, bangers and mash, cream tea, shepherds pie and crumpets. Most popular pub grub, after bangers and mash was ham, egg and chips (11), toad in the hole (16), Cornish pasty (18), steak and kidney pie (19), pork pie (20), ploughmans lunch (22) and scotch eggs (30) Other popular sweet items were ice cream (13), sticky toffee pudding and custard (17), bakewell tart (21) and rhubarb and custard (24). Continue reading →

Edifying to read that Sir Martin Sorrell of advertising firm WPP is trousering a pay package of £43 million, with the support of 80% of WPP shareholders.

Apparently only 20% refused to back the nice little earner for 2014 at the firm’ general meeting last month, after shareholder advisory consultancy Pirc pointed out that the “excessive” package was 37 times Sir Martin’s base salary.

Sadly most of the shareholders don’t seem to have considered the simple mathematics that for that price they could get 43 top advertising people delighted to earn £1 million a year, any one of which could possibly do as much, or more for the firm than the overpaid Sir Martin. Or how about giving 86 top people £500,000 each?