The offices of one of Japan’s biggest ad agencies have been raided after a young woman committed suicide due to karoshi (chronic overwork).

Ad firm Dentsu is being investigated on suspicion of systematic illegal overtime. The 24-year old, Matsuri Takahashi, was working 100 hours overtime a month when she killed herself last December.

In 2014 around 70 people a day committed suicide in Japan.

Directors who put their companies into liquidation to avoid fines for making nuisance calls from the Information Commissioner (IC), and then start up again under a new company name are to be targeted with new laws making them personally responsible, rather than their company. Continue reading →

A complaint from Virgin Media that ads selling BT’s Infinity broadband were misleading has been upheld by the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA).

The ads, on TV, in the national press and on the BT website claimed that the BT product was the fastest around for the price. Continue reading →

The copyright protection period has been increased from 25 to 70 years after a designer dies by the Intellectual Property Office (IPO).

This applies to any artistic work for which more than 50 copies have been produced.

Companies using designs and artworks for which the 25 years have expired, but not the 70 years could find themselves in breach of copyright. These companies have until January 28 2017 to comply, after which time the copyright holders will be able to take legal action against them.

One company that was very keen on staying in the EU, and advised all its employees to vote to stay in the referendum, is Unilever.

The firm makes Marmite, Hellmans mayonnaise, Ben and Jerry’s ice-cream and the Pot Noodles gourmet treat, and has increased prices on many lines, blaming the Brexit vote and the subsequent fall in value of the pound. This is despite many products being made in the UK, a fact pointed out by Tesco, which won plaudits for being on the side of the British shopper. Continue reading →

Phone giant Vodaphone has been fined a giant £4.6 million after it failed to credit 10,000 customers who had paid for top-ups, and then handled their complaints badly. The fine is the largest ever imposed on a telecoms company.

And equally large phone firm Samsung has revealed that the withdrawal of its Galaxy Note7 phone due to a battery defect causing it to catch fire or explode is likely to cost it nearly £2 billion in lost profits. The South Korean company is also being sued for compensation by hundreds of its customers.

German car makers Volkswagen are set to add to their £15.5 billion bill for emission rigging after it emerged that its Audi luxury brand cars could also be similarly rigged to pass emission tests.

And Japanese car makers Toyota are recalling 340,000 Prius vehicles over faulty brakes after reports of crashes, injuries and deaths were received. The problem affects cars manufactured and sold in the last 14 months.

Company cars could be a perk of the past, if government plans to increase taxation for employees awarded them are implemented.

Employees paying tax at 40% could face a tax bill of more than £5,000 over the three year company car contract. More than 300,000 employees could be adversely affected.

HMRC are concerned that the company car is being used by employers to pay less salary, depriving the Treasury of tax revenue.