Your commercial news round-up: Fifa, Johnson & Johnson, UK educational reform, eBay harassment case

Anna O’Boyle is acting senior content and engagement coordinator at LawCareers.Net.

Reading time: four minutes

Plans by Fifa to capitalise further on this summer’s financially lucrative yet politically controversial World Cup have sparked significant debate across the worlds of sports, politics and media. In other news, Johnson & Johnson’s $5.5 billion settlement is set to bring an end to their decade-long legal battles, while eBay seeks to address the harassment campaign pursued by former executives. Meanwhile, Andy Burnham’s plans for educational reform signal the biggest overhaul for UK education in 15 years and Barclays has announced a pre-tax profit of £6.1 billion.

Read on for LawCareers.Net’s pick of this week’s top commercial stories.

• With Uefa accusing Fifa of “selling the soul of football’ and reportedly considering legal action, President Gianni Infantino’s plans for a new commercial entity named Fifa Forward Enterprise (FFE) have been met with widespread disapproval. Following his controversial decision to rescind US striker Folarin Balogun’s red card at Donald Trump’s request, Infantino has announced that Fifa is working with the US bank JP Morgan and Thrive Capital, an investment company founded by the brother of Donald Trump’s son‑in-law, on plans to sell a significant stake in the commercial rights of the World Cup. Sources have estimated that the FFE, through which the sales would be made, could be valued at about $20 billion, consolidating all of Fifa’s commercial endeavours into a single entity. While Infantino claims the new enterprise would enable Fifa to increase the funding provided to each of its member associations from $8 million to $20 million each year, key figures across both sporting and political landscapes have condemned the proposal, with Andy Burnham, newly appointed UK Prime Minister, claiming “Football does not belong to investors.”  


• Johnson & Johnson (J&J) has proposed a settlement of up to $5.5 billion (£4.14 billion) to resolve around 76,000 US lawsuits alleging that its talc-based baby powder caused ovarian cancer. The settlement would cover most remaining talc-related claims but, before being finalised, the proposal must be accepted by legal firms representing 95% of ovarian cancer claims in state and federal courts. As of late July, J&J claims that the majority of law firms have signed off on the proposal. Lawsuits against J&J’s talc-based baby powder date back to 2009, with claimants alleging the products caused cancer through asbestos contamination. The company continues to deny the allegations, with Erik Haas, J&J’s vice president of litigation, describing the allegations as “meritless”. J&J has been successful in most cases heard so far, including a recent case in which a federal court handed the firm a victory by questioning the plaintiffs’ ability to show that talc was the direct cause of their ovarian cancer. J&J stopped making and selling talc-based baby powder in 2022, switching to a cornstarch-based alternative.


• Prime Minister Andy Burnham has unveiled plans for serious educational reform, seeking to target those aged 16 to 24 and not in employment, education or training. The proposals, which aim to place technical and academic education on an equal footing, include plans to develop vocational courses that respond directly to the jobs market for students aged 14 and above, while still allowing them to study core academic subjects. The plans build on existing models, including the Greater Manchester Baccalaureate, introduced by Burnham in 2023, which combines technical training with academic study. While many have welcomed the reform, teaching unions, economists and educational policy analysts have raised concerns regarding funding, employee engagement and the potential to negatively impact children already facing educational disadvantages.


• eBay and several of the company’s former executives have agreed to pay bloggers David and Ina Steiner $56 million (£42 million) to settle a lawsuit concerning a 2019 harassment campaign. The Steiners, who ran the EcommerceBytes website and newsletter, experienced an "unprecedented, relentless, and over-the-top harassment campaign" carried out in response to the couple’s online criticism of the company. Seven former eBay executives pleaded guilty to criminal charges between 2022 and 2024, after targeting the couple with threatening items and messages, including sending them a pig’s blood-covered mask, funeral wreath and harassing social media content. eBay itself was also criminally charged and paid a $3 million fine. As part of the settlement, eBay will provide most of the compensation, including $6 million for non-profit organisations, while former Chief Executive Devin Wenig will contribute $1 million to an unnamed charity supporting the right to freedom of speech. eBay described the conduct as “wrong” and “reprehensible”.


• Barclays reported stronger-than-expected results for the first half of the year, with pre-tax profit rising 17% year on year to £6.1 billion, exceeding analyst forecasts of £5.9 billion. Growth was driven largely by the investment banking division, where income increased 20% to £3.95 billion, supported by market volatility and higher investment banking fees. Barclays’ equity trading business recorded a 45% increase in income to £1.26 billion compared with the same period last year. The bank also upgraded its 2026 income target to around £31.5 billion, citing robust growth in investment banking. Addressing concerns that such growth may result in increased tax contributions for banks, Group Finance Director Anna Cross urged the UK government not to make such plans, with Chief Executive CS Venkatarishnan claiming that while Barclays welcomes Andy Burnham’s “commitment to growth”, it seeks to use its increased capital to “support investment and to support growth”, rather than pay tax.

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