Your commercial news round-up: Facebook, Lloyds Bank, takeaway meals, Amazon and Starbucks

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We have summarised some of the week’s biggest commercial news stories in bite-size chunks below.

• Facebook has been fined a record £50 million for “consciously refusing to report” information to the UK’s competition watchdog. Earlier this year, the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) launched an investigation into the social media platform’s £290 million takeover, following concerns that Facebook could deny other platforms access to Giphy’s images or alter the terms of this access. The CMA has now fined Facebook for allegedly failing to comply with its obligation to provide updates and information regarding how it is observing the CMA’s “initial enforcement order”, ignoring previous warnings and committing a “major breach” – allegations that Facebook denies. The CMA said: "This is the first time a company has been found by the CMA to have breached an [order] by consciously refusing to report all the required information." However, this isn’t the first time Facebook has been fined – last year it paid $500 million in a privacy lawsuit and in 2018 they were fined £500 million by the UK’s Information Commission Office.

• Lloyds Banking Group has announced the closure of a further 48 branches, due to a decline in customer visits in recent years. Unite union’s general secretary has warned that the closure of 41 Lloyds Bank and seven Halifax branches “is a complete betrayal of the communities and staff who have long supported this highly profitable business.” Vim Maru, retail director for Lloyds Banking Group, said: “Like many other businesses, we’ve seen people using our branches less frequently in recent years, and this decline is continuing.” Covid-19 has had a significant impact on the banking sector – although it can function remotely, as a provider of payments, savings and credits, it has felt the negative effect of the pandemic.

• Takeaway orders are still booming despite restaurants reopening, according to Deliveroo. The food delivery firm reported a 64% rise in food orders internationally and a 59% rise in the UK between July and September. During the same period, the average Deliveroo customer ordered 3.3 times per month despite lockdown restrictions easing. Deliveroo’s new partnerships with Amazon and Morrisons appear to have helped boost orders, with Amazon Prime members offered a free 12-month subscription to Deliveroo Plus, which lead to the number of Deliveroo members doubling. Two months ago, we reported Just Eat’s plans to create more than 1,000  jobs.

• Amazon and Starbucks might be launching a co-branded coffee shop that uses Amazon’s cashier-less tech. The collaboration would form a brand-new coffee shop that sells Starbucks-branded drinks and food sold at Amazon Fresh stores, while paving the way for cashier-less retail technology (also referred to as ‘Just Walk Out’ technology). It’s unclear when this store will launch as only preliminary talks have been held.

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