Thursday newspaper round-up: Berkeley Group, Amazon, Brexit, pensions, WTO
Bosses at the housebuilding firm Berkeley Group were accused of engaging in years of bribery with a partner at a major estate agent, according to papers filed in a pair of lawsuits brought against Berkeley by a former finance director in 2014 and 2015. The claim was among numerous “whistleblowing” allegations by Nicolas Simpkin, 49, who served on the board of the £2.7bn turnover company from 2009 until he was fired in 2014. – Guardian
Amazon has suffered a major data breach that caused customer names and email addresses to be disclosed on its website, just two days ahead of Black Friday. The e-commerce giant said it has emailed affected customers but refused to give any more details on how many people were affected or where they are based. The firm said the issue was not a breach of its website or any of its systems, but a technical issue that inadvertently posted customer names and email addresses to its website. – Guardian
UK ports and their counterparts in Normandy are attempting to side step EU efforts to prevent bilateral deals in case an overarching Brexit deal is not secured. A group of Normandy and UK ports are trying cement their no-deal planning, according to President of the Normandy region, Hervé Morin. Normandy is one of France's most important regions for exports and has five major ports, including a container terminal at Le Havre. – Telegraph
US economic growth will be cut in half by the trade war, as manufacturers scramble to find new suppliers, move factories and hike prices for customers, leading economists have warned. It comes as scores of executives from across American industry said that taxes on trade are already squeezing their operations, delaying growth and imposing extra costs that have to be passed on to customers. – Telegraph
Companies that award bigger percentage pension contributions to bosses than to junior staff are being told to cut them or face revolts from their biggest shareholders. Executives who routinely receive a contribution in lieu of pension of between 20 per cent and 35 per cent of their base pay are being told to reduce the payments to the same level of contributions they award most of their staff, which can be as low as 2 per cent and rarely much above 10 per cent. – The Times
The World Trade Organisation is to investigate President Trump’s use of a 56-year-old law to restrict metals imports on national security grounds. The EU, China and other nations directed the WTO to investigate the legality of US tariffs on steel and aluminium, which the president justified by Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962. A finding against the Americans could have ramifications. – The Times