The internet didn't shrink 6% real estate commissions. But this lawsuit might

In a complaint filed in early March in the Northern District of Illinois, five law firms teamed up to allege that high commissions were a result of collusion by the National Association of Realtors and the nation's largest brokerage franchises in violation of federal antitrust laws. The firms include heavy hitters like Hagens Berman, which boasts work on cases including the state tobacco lawsuits that led to a $206 billion settlement. read more »

PG&E Lines Tied to Deadliest California Fire in State Report

California’s largest utility filed for bankruptcy in January

Camp Fire destroyed town of Paradise, killed 85 people

California investigators have determined that PG&E Corp.'s power lines ignited the deadliest blaze in state history, opening the door for more liabilities that the company has already warned may exceed $30 billion. read more »

Uber’s car-wreck IPO could change Wall Street’s thinking about its ‘unicorns’

Few things prove the ancient warning “Be careful what you wish for” like a Wall Street sure thing that blows itself to smithereens.

For example, the Uber initial public offering.

Investment and tech gurus spent five years hawking Uber as a world-changing business and Uber stock as a stairway to fortune. Contrary voices were heard in the marketplace, it is true, but they were few and far between and in any event drowned out by the drum-beating from the other side.

But now the public market — the defining arbiter of the value of an enterprise, at least as a snapshot — has spoken, and its judgment is harsh. read more »

North Carolina sues Juul, setting up a fresh legal fight for the embattled e-cigarette company

North Carolina Attorney General Joshua Stein filed a lawsuit Wednesday against popular e-cigarette maker Juul Labs, making it the first state to take legal action against the company.

The suit, filed in state court, alleges that Juul caused addiction in consumers by “deceptively downplaying the potency and danger of the nicotine” and employed advertising campaigns that targeted people under the legal smoking age.

And the state is asking the court to apply a marketing and advertising ban that mimics that of the Tobacco Master Settlement Agreement, which went into effect in 1998. read more »

Tax raids across Germany sparked by ICIJ revelations

Prosecutors, police and tax inspectors in Germany have raided the offices of dozens of banks, financial advisers and wealthy individuals as part of a criminal probe into Germans suspected of tax evasion.

According to the Frankfurt Public Prosecutor, authorities searched the homes of eight people in the towns of Bad Tölz, Erkrath, Hamburg, Konz, Simmerath, and Sylt.

Officials also visited 11 banks in Aachen, Bonn, Dusseldorf, Erding, Frankfurt, Cologne and Trier, and the offices of four tax consultants and six asset management companies.

Wealthy Germans allegedly used tax havens to hide capital gains from the Germany treasury and evade taxes, according to the prosecutor’s press release. read more »

Deutsche Bank Had to Know About Bribes, Says Man Who Paid Them

Deutsche Bank AG “must have known” that fees it was paying for deals with the Dutch housing firm Stichting Vestia were being used for, according to the man who received those fees -- and has since confessed to bribery. read more »

UK banks fined €1bn by EU for rigging foreign exchange market

European commission says decision shows ‘collusive behaviour will not be tolerated’

Five banks including Barclays and Royal Bank of Scotland have been fined a total of more than €1bn (£875m) by the European Union for rigging the multitrillion-dollar foreign exchange market.

The European commission said the banks, which also include Citigroup, JP Morgan and MUFG (Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group), formed two cartels to manipulate the spot foreign exchange market for 11 currencies, including the US dollar, the euro and the pound. read more »