Your commercial news round-up: NHS spending, Disney and Universal, Ford, Evri and DHL

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Rachel Reeves has unveiled new spending plans, including more investment in the NHS, and Disney and Universal are suing AI firm Midjourney over copyright infringement claims. Meanwhile, Ford has recalled 1.1 billion vehicles, and a merger between Evri and DHL has prompted a Competition and Markets Authority review. Read on to find out more! 

• Chancellor Rachel Reeves has committed £29 billion to strengthen the NHS in England as she set out the government's spending plans until the end of the decade. She’s also announced increased spending into defence and housing, and promised more funding for AI and transport projects as part of her plans for “renewing Britain”. Reeves stated that the plans will improve security, economic growth and “an NHS fit for the future”. However, Conservative Shadow Chancellor Sir Mel Stride said it was a "spend now, tax later review" and has forecast "a cruel summer of speculation", according to the BBC. The review concludes several months of discussions, with final agreements reached earlier this week. On Sunday, Housing Secretary Angela Rayner secured a landmark £39 billion over the next decade to invest in social and affordable housing in England. To enable increased spending in priority areas, other departments have seen budget cuts. For example, the foreign office will experience a 6.9% reduction, primarily in aid spending; transport will lose 5% a year over the next three years; and the environmental department will see a 2.7% decrease.
   
• Disney and Universal are suing AI firm Midjourney over its image generator tool, arguing that it’s a "bottomless pit of plagiarism". The studios claimed that the tool has made "innumerable" copies of characters like Star Wars’ Darth Vader, Frozen's Elsa and the Minions from Despicable Me. Disney's Chief Legal Officer Horacio Gutierrez said the firm was "optimistic" about how AI "can be used responsibly as a tool to further human creativity" but also stated that "piracy is piracy, and the fact that it's done by an AI company does not make it any less infringing". Disney and Universal stated that Midjourney made £221 million in the past year and that it also has plans to release a video service soon. Syracuse University law professor Shubha Ghosh explained that the AI generated content doesn’t seem to transform copyright characters in a “creative or imaginative way”. Meanwhile, head of intellectual property at US law firm Hall Estill, Randy McCarthy, said: "No litigation is ever a slam dunk, and that is true for Disney and Universal in this case.
  
  “There are several issues such as terms of service provisions by Midjourney, and basic fair use analysis, that will need to be sorted out by the court before we can determine the likely outcome.”
   
• The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has launched an investigation into the proposed merger between Evri and DHL’s UK e-commerce business, which could create one of the biggest parcel couriers in the UK. The merger would combine more than 30,000 couriers, van drivers and 12,000 further workers to deliver one billion parcels and letters each year. As part of its review, the CMA will gather feedback from stakeholders to assess whether the merger could significantly reduce competition in the market. Under the proposed deal, German-owned DHL, the world’s third-largest delivery company, will acquire a “significant minority stake” in Evri, which was bought last year by US private equity firm Apollo Capital Management for £2.7 billion.
   
• Ford his recalling 1.1 million vehicles in the US due to a defect in the faulty rearview camera software, which may increase the risk of a crash. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), the issue could cause review cameras to delay, freeze or not display. Ford has acknowledged one allegation of a minor crash relating to the issue. The NHTSA contacted Ford in January after receiving more than three dozen complaints on the 2021 to 2023 Ford F-150 vehicles.  In November, Ford agreed to a $165 million civil penalty after an agency investigation found that the manufacturer had failed to recall defective vehicles in a timely manner. Letters are due to be sent on 16 June to notify owners of the safety risk.

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