Your commercial news round-up: Trump vs law firms, UK-EU reset, Burger King AI, South East Water fine

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Have you been keeping up with the commercial news? The Trump administration has pressed ahead with court action against major law firms, while a new report has criticised the UK’s attempts to reset relations with the EU. Elsewhere, Burger King is trialling AI‑powered headsets and South East Water is facing regulator fines following supply disruption. Read on for more!

• On Tuesday 3 March, US President Donald Trump’s administration made a U‑turn, announcing it’d proceed with court action against major law firms that’d previously investigated or opposed him, after abandoning the plan the day before. In its announcement, the Justice Department said the appeals court hadn’t yet granted its motion to dismiss and that firms weren’t harmed by the change in position. Perkins Coie, one of the affected firms, said that the Justice Department “offered no explanation to either the parties or the court for its reversal” and stated: “We remain committed to defending our firm, our people and our clients”.
   
• From the US to the EU, UK parliaments’ foreign affairs committee said Prime Minister Kier Starmer’s efforts to reset the UK-EU relationship lack “direction, definition and drive” in a report based on witness testimony from the UK-EU summit in May. Labour MP and chair of the committee, Emily Thornberry, stated: “In many areas, the government has failed to provide timelines, milestones or priorities, and it does not appear to have an ambitious, strategic vision for the UK’s new relationship with the EU.” Despite this, the findings said the meeting had “substantially improved the overall political relationship”. Last year’s talks outlined goals to build a youth mobility scheme, rejoin student programme Erasmus and create a new agricultural trade agreement. To date, only the Erasmus deal has been announced.
  
  The review highlighted that progress has slowed due to the EU “changing the goalposts recently by demanding a financial contribution to the economic development of lower-income EU countries”, which wasn’t mentioned at the summit in May. It also criticised the “exorbitant” £1.7 billion fee for the UK’s participation in the first round of the EU’s new €150 billion Security Action for Europe defence procurement initiative. While the report praised the defence partnership, it urged both sides to “to go further and faster”.
   
• Burger King is testing a new AI powered headset to monitor staff interactions with customers at the drive through and oversee store operations. The system, BK Assistant, complies a “friendliness score” based on recognising terms such as “please” and “thank you” during interactions with customers, according to BBC News. The technology, which is being trialled across 500 US restaurants, also helps employees with queries about preparing menu items and flags when products need restocking. While customer service calls have been recorded for years, critics on social media have called the move “dystopian”. The company explained that technology aims “to support our teams so they can stay present with guests” and stressed that it isn’t designed to “record conversations or evaluate individual employees".
   
• South East Water is facing a £22 million fine by industry regulator Ofwat for “multiple supply disruptions” during busy periods, which left customers in Kent and Sussex without water. The fine relates to problems during 2020 and 2023 that impacted more than 286,000 people. South East Water has filed for a judicial review in response but this has been rejected. As part of investigations, Ofwat will determine if South East Water provided high standards of customer service, which is part of the conditions of its license. The water company also faces further Ofwat investigation for disruption in November 2025 and January 2026.

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