Your commercial news round-up: Halifax brand scrapped, USMCA renewal negotiations, e-scooter ad crackdown, Ford and AI

Olivia Thorne (she/her) is the content manager at LawCareers.Net

Reading time: three minutes

From Lloyds Banking Group's decision to retire the historic Halifax brand and uncertainty surrounding the US-Mexico-Canada Agreement trade agreement, to questions over retailer advertising practices and the limits of AI in the workplace, this week’s stories offer insights into the commercial, legal and strategic challenges facing businesses today. Read on for LawCareers.Net’s pick of this week’s top commercial stories.

• In UK business news, Lloyds Banking Group has confirmed that the Halifax brand is due to be scrapped after nearly 200 years, with all customer accounts to be rebranded to Lloyds. The move has been described as “bitterly disappointing” by Halifax Labour MP Kate Dearden who’s been in discussions with Lloyds to ensure its “commitment and continued investment in Halifax long into the future”. Customers are expected to experience little change as Lloyds Banking Group’s chief executive of customer relationships Jas Singh confirmed that they’ll even keep the same sort code and account number. No job cuts have been confirmed as part of the decision, according to BBC News, and Calderdale Council’s Reform leader Dan Sutherland said they’re “reassured Lloyds has made it very clear the business is absolutely committed to the town”.
   
• Meanwhile, the US has said it won’t renew the landmark US-Mexico-Canada Agreement “without addressing existing issues”, according to a senior US official. As a result, the trilateral trade pact will miss out on an automatic 16-year extension. The official said that failure to agree on a renewal “essentially sets a 10-year shot lock to termination”, with US trade officials calling for significant changes before an agreement can be reached. If all countries agreed, the trade deal would remain in place until 2042; however, the US opting out will require the nations to meet every year to negotiate changes.
   
• Turning to consumer law and regulation, e-scooters are being advertised for use on public roads and paths by major retailers including Amazon, Argos and Currys, despite UK laws stating that privately owned e-scooters can be used only on private land with the landowner’s permission. BBC News has reported that a Press Association (PA) investigation identified the advertisements, with one Amazon advert recommending an e-scooter for “urban commuting”. After being contacted by the PA, retailers have amended their advertising, with Argos claiming that it had “updated wording” to make the advertisements “clear” for its customers, while Currys said it was reviewing its website. Smaller retailers continue to promote e-scooters for commuting, with no explanation that this is against the law in the UK with privately owned e-scooters. E-scooters can only be ridden on roads, cycle paths and in parks in the UK if they’re rented as part of a government-backed scheme.
   
• Elsewhere, Ford has rehired more than 300 experienced quality inspectors in recent years after finding that AI-led quality checks were unable to match the skills and experience of its previous engineers. The carmaker had invested in AI across various parts of the business, including quality checks, but admitted that it had overlooked the experience of its most “knowledgeable engineers” who've been with the manufacturer through many product cycles. Speaking to Bloomberg, Charles Poon, Ford’s vice president of vehicle hardware engineering, claimed that the AI-driven checks didn’t live up to expectations, acknowledging that for Ford to enhance some of its automation and machine learning, and AI tools, it “needed to ensure that they were trained by the most experienced individuals”.  

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