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European Union watchdogs fined Apple and Meta hundreds of millions of euros Wednesday as they stepped up enforcement of the 27-nation bloc’s digital competition rules.The European Commission imposed a 500 million euro ($571 million) fine on Apple for preventing app makers from pointing users to cheaper options outside its App Store.The commission, which is the EU’s executive arm, also fined Meta Platforms 200 million euros because it forced Facebook and Instagram users to choose between seeing ads or paying to avoid them.The punishments were smaller than the blockbuster multibillion-euro fines that the commission has previously slapped on Big Tech companies in antitrust cases.Apple and Meta have to comply with the decisions within 60 days or risk unspecified “periodic penalty payments,” the commission said.The decisions were expected to come in March, but officials apparently held off amid an escalating trans-Atlantic trade war with U.S. President Donald Trump, who has repeatedly complained about regulations from Brussels affecting American companies.The penalties were issued under the EU’s Digital Markets Act, also known as the DMA. It’s a sweeping rulebook that amounts to a set of do’s and don’ts designed to give consumers and businesses more choice and prevent Big Tech “gatekeepers” from cornering digital markets.The DMA seeks to ensure “that citizens have full control over when and how their data is used online, and businesses can freely communicate with their own customers,” Henna Virkkunen, the commission’s executive vice-president for tech sovereignty, said in a statement.“The decisions adopted today find that both Apple and Meta have taken away this free choice from their users and are required to change their behavior,” Virkkunen said.Both companies indicated they would appeal.Apple accused the commission of “unfairly targeting” the iPhone maker, and said it “continues to move the goal posts” despite the company’s efforts to comply with the rules.Meta Chief Global Affairs Officer Joel Kaplan said in a statement that the “Commission is attempting to handicap successful American businesses while allowing Chinese and European companies to operate under different standards.”In the App Store case, the Commission had accused the iPhone maker of imposing unfair rules preventing app developers from freely steering consumers to other channels.Among the DMA’s provisions are requirements to let developers inform customers of cheaper purchasing options and direct them to those offers.The commission said it ordered Apple to remove technical and commercial restrictions that prevent developers from steering users to other channels, and to end “non-compliant” conduct.Apple said it has “spent hundreds of thousands of engineering hours and made dozens of changes to comply with this law, none of which our users have asked for.”“Despite countless meetings, the Commission continues to move the goal posts every step of the way,” the company said.The EU’s Meta investigation centered on the company’s strategy to comply with strict European data privacy rules by giving users the option of paying for ad-free versions of Facebook and Instagram.Users could pay at least 10 euros ($11) a month to avoid being targeted by ads based on their personal data. The U.S. tech giant rolled out the option after the European Union’s top court ruled Meta must first get consent before showing ads to users, in a decision that threatened its business model of tailoring ads based on individual users’ online interests and digital activity.Regulators took issue with Meta’s model, saying it doesn’t allow users to exercise their right to “freely consent” to allowing their personal data from its various services, which also including Facebook Marketplace, WhatsApp, and Messenger, to be combined for personalized ads.Meta rolled out a third option in November giving Facebook and Instagram users in Europe the option to see fewer personalized ads if they don’t want to pay for an ad-free subscription. The commission said it’s “currently assessing” this option and continues to hold talks with Meta, and has asked the company to provide evidence of the new option’s impact.“This isn’t just about a fine; the Commission forcing us to change our business model effectively imposes a multi-billion-dollar tariff on Meta while requiring us to offer an inferior service,” Kaplan said. “And by unfairly restricting personalized advertising the European Commission is also hurting European businesses and economies.” Kelvin Chan, AP Business Writer
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E-Commerce
As the founder of World Central Kitchen, renowned chef and humanitarian José Andrés has truly mastered the art of leading through crisis. Andrés shares insights from his new book, Change the Recipea candid collection of personal stories that doubles as a playbook for navigating uncertainty, breaking rules, and leading with heart. José also explores how AI is poised to reshape the food industry and more. This is an abridged transcript of an interview from Rapid Response, hosted by the former editor-in-chief of Fast Company Bob Safian. From the team behind the Masters of Scale podcast, Rapid Response features candid conversations with todays top business leaders navigating real-time challenges. Subscribe to Rapid Response wherever you get your podcasts to ensure you never miss an episode. One of the book’s key themes is adaptability, right? Yeah. For many people, especially today, things feel very volatile. There can be panic, there could be paralysis. How do you center yourself in those moments and how much do you think adaptability is about temperament versus something we can learn? I think the human DNA of who we are, we are a species that we are highly adaptable. We are not adaptable with our bodies, meaning evolution happens over hundreds of thousands, millions of years, but our brain can and our heart can. Once you find out what something is, your heart adapts and we change. You talk in the book about breaking rules and that you need to break rules to make progress. Yeah. Obviously, that one can be used in many ways because you could argue that rules are being broken right now in our government. I want to ask you because you’re in favor of rule-breaking sometimes to get certain things done, right? Let me tell you: It’s like when you show up somewhere and somebody comes and tells you that you are not needed here and you’re looking around and you are only seeing hunger, destruction. I’m sorry, but I want to be respectful, but if I see that there’s need, we’re going to stay here because our mission is not going to be following your guidance. It’s going to be following what the people are telling us. And so this is a way of breaking rules. We were told sometimes in some hurricanes in America that some schools, we couldn’t use the kitchens, and the school kitchen was the best kitchen in many kilometers around and was complicated to navigate through roads and destruction, and even we were told we couldn’t use that kitchen. We used that kitchen. We got in trouble. We got in trouble until, “Oh, you are feeding 2,000 people every day?” I think that’s a rule that I will not mind to pay a penalty or even be sent to jail. Right. You’re okay if you pay a penalty for breaking those rules because the goal is important enough. That’s what breaking the rules means. Sometimes the rules are in your own brain. It’s breaking the chains of the own rules that you set on your own that don’t allow you to do the extra step to make something happen. Sometimes they’re rules then, they’re not really rules. You’ve just taken them as rules. I want to ask you, there’s something else you write about in the book, the difference between thinking like software and thinking like hardware. Can you explain what that is? Yeah. Well, obviously, this is one that in emergencies I learned a long time ago. Very often in emergencies, you can hear presidents, “We are positioning military or helicopters or boats or food or armories or water or ambulances.” Okay. All of that is hardware. The hardware are tools, things that will allow you to have a good response. Everybody’s going to be working on bringing the hardware to ground zero. A week later, two weeks later, you are still in the business of being a transportation company, trying to move hardware from point A to ground zero. All of a sudden, you forgot who you were. Who you were: a feeding organization. Software will allow you to respond to your main mission, which is feeding people on day one. What software is, what do you have around to feed people? What is at your finger points today? Ain’t going to be perfect. Ain’t going to be pretty. You’re not going to have logos. It’s not going to be perfect. Maybe tamales in a banana leaf because it’s the only thing we have. We don’t even have forks and knives, but that allows you to give to somebody a piece of food that actually you can be holding in your hands and you are feeding day one in the heart of Puerto Rico with nothing. So that’s the hardware versus software. Never forget your mission, never forget what you’re there for. Every organization has to be clear what your mission is to the most simplistic, smaller phrase possible, and never let anybody forget that. If not, your mission becomes something else. Concentrating on the software will always allow you to be faster and quicker. As you’re talking about technology, I recently did an episode with Marc Lore, the founder of Wonder, the food delivery app. I know you’ve collaborated with Wonder. And Marc talked about how he uses AI to pick all of his meals, like every meal, and he thinks one day everybody’s going to do that and you’re even going to use it at a restaurant to pick your meals for you. Has he talked to you about this? Have you tried it? Do you think this is a good thing? Anything Marc says, I will support because Marc is one of those amazing brains. Obviously, he’s working on taxis that will lift up in the middle of the cities, planes that will fly us away. And obviously, Wonder I know very well. I’m on their board. The big thing for me and AI is when I tell AI, “What are the food problems and food solutions in America and planet Earth?” And AI right now, the best it can do is give you a very good glimpse of all the different situations food is a problem and can be a solution . . . Things people don’t even imagine. But food is everything. Food is national security, food is defense, food is immigration, food is science, food is health, food is the economy. Food is very much in everything, and we don’t even realize. We only have food on planet Earth for around six, seven weeks, no more; 90 days is the total food that we have stored to feed the eight billion people on planet Earth. If a major thing will happen at once, and it’s been glimpses in the past that we had back-to-back hurricanes in high productive food areas of America, Central America, tornadoes, droughts, pests wiping out food production, wiping out cattle, wiping out eggs, wiping out chickens. Imagine if the perfect storm happens. We have enough food to eat on planet Earth. Why are we not finding the way to make sure that those people that are really poor, we distribute that excess of food through better distribution, et cetera? That’s the problem now. We have enough, but not everybody is receiving the food, and we should be solving this problem. I believe it’s highly solvable. So obviously, if Marc is saying, “This is the way,” I will listen to Marc because we need more brains like Marc solving prolems, and it doesn’t seem we have the people or the experts concentrated in what can become a very big problem not too far away from today.
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E-Commerce
Fans of Big Lots who were devastated when the embattled retailer filed for bankruptcy last year will be happy to learn that more than 200 locations are expected to reopen by summer. The discount chain, which had initially been expected to close every store, struck a deal in December with Variety Wholesalers, parent company of Roses and other bargain shopping chains, which agreed to take over hundreds of leases and operate the stores under the Big Lots brand. Here’s what you need to know: When are the Big Lots store reopening? The stores are having their soft openings in four “waves,” with the first wave of nine stores having already opened earlier this month, as Fast Company previously reported. A second wave of about 54 stores are expected to reopen in early May, a Variety spokesperson told Fast Company. All four waves of openings are expected to be complete by early June. Are these actually new stores, though? All of the locations were previously Big Lots stores whose leases have been taken over by Variety Wholesalers. The stores held going-out-of-business sales and, according to Variety, need to close for several weeks while they are remodeled and stocked with merchandise. Big Lots is in many ways a new company now, as Variety has an established way of operating and is likely to put its own spin on things. A Variety spokesperson told Fast Company in March that it plans to sell “new categories of merchandise.” Where are the new Big Lots stores located? The list of stores includes 219 Big Lots locations across 15 states, mostly in the South and Midwest, according to data provided by Variety. North Carolina, where Variety is headquartered, will see the most Big Lots locations reopen, with more than 50 stores planned for the state. South Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Georgia, Kentucky, Tennessee, and West Virginia will also see large numbers of stores. !function(){"use strict";window.addEventListener("message",(function(a){if(void 0!==a.data["datawrapper-height"]){var e=document.querySelectorAll("iframe");for(var t in a.data["datawrapper-height"])for(var r,i=0;r=e[i];i++)if(r.contentWindow===a.source){var d=a.data["datawrapper-height"][t]+"px";r.style.height=d}}}))}(); The full list of planned Big Lots reopenings appears below and in the interactive map above. Alabama Wave 2 5363 Hwy 90 W Ste C, Mobile, AL 36619 603 US Hwy 72 W, Athens, AL 35611 1820 6th Ave SE, Decatur, AL 35601 Wave 3 14228 US Highway 431, Guntersville, AL, 35976 5510 McFarland Blvd, Northport, AL, 35476 1100 Hwy 78 W, Jasper, AL, 35501 2821 Montgomery Highway, Dothan, AL, 36303 Florida Wave 3 4700 Highway 90, Marianna, FL, 32446 225 S Tyndall Pkwy, Panama City, FL, 32404 9119 Merrill Rd Ste 50, Jacksonville, FL, 32225 122 S Nova Rd, Ormond Beach, FL, 32174 146 SE US Highway 19, Crystal River, FL, 34429 Wave 4 6247 Highway 90, Milton, FL 32570 2384 Commercial Way, Spring Hill, FL 34606 3401 13th St Ste 100, St. Cloud, FL 34769 843 W Bloomingdale Ave, Brandon, FL 33511 3048 E College Ave, Ruskin, FL 33570 13970 N Cleveland Ave, North Ft. Myers, FL 33903 4901 Palm Beach Blvd Ste 230, Fort Myers, FL 33905 Georgia Wave 2 558 Battlefield Pkwy, Fort Oglethorpe, GA 30742 323 Habersham Village Cir, Cornelia, GA 30531 110 E Northside Dr, Valdosta, GA 31602 2708 Peach Orchard Rd, Augusta, GA 30906 Wave 3 260 Merchants Square, Dallas, GA, 30132 2932 Canton Rd Ste 210, Marietta, GA, 30066 3791 S Cobb Dr SE Ste G, Smyrna, GA, 30080 4125 Highway 20, Ste A-2, Buford, GA, 30518 2305 E 1st St, Vidalia, GA, 30474 1803 Knight Ave Ste A2, Waycross, GA, 31501 4420 Altama Ave Ste C2, Brunswick, GA, 31520 Wave 4 127 Commerce Ave, LaGrange, GA 30241 3111 Highway 278 NW, Covington, GA 30014 13 Lester Rd Ste C, Statesboro, GA 30458 Louisiana Wave 1 755 Veterans Memorial Blvd, Metairie, LA, 70005 Michigan Wave 2 4157 E. Court Street, Burton, MI 48509 5112 Miller Rd, Flint, MI 48507 7651 23 Mile Rd, Shelby Township, MI 48316 Wave 3 659 24th St, Port Huron, MI, 48060 14333 Eureka Rd, Southgate, MI, 48195 Mississippi Wave 1 2605 W Main St, Tupelo, MS, 38801 5778 Hwy 80 E, Pearl, MS, 39208 Wave 3 875 Main St, Southaven, MS, 38671 Ohio Wave 2 4331 Mahoning Ave NW, Warren, OH 44483 7100 South Ave, Boardman, OH 44512 1965 W State St, Alliance, OH 44601 498 Cadiz Rd, Wintersville, OH 43953 56104 National Rd, Bridgeport, OH 43912 6300 E Livingston Ave, Reynoldsburg, OH 43068 Wave 3 3946 W Alexis Rd, Toledo, OH, 43623 1800 E State St, Fremont, OH, 43420 825 Cleveland St, Elyria, OH, 44035 408 Bluebell Dr NW, New Philadelphia, OH, 44663 2837 Winchester Pike, Columbus, OH, 43232 4260 West Broad St, Columbus, OH, 43228 3961 Hoover Rd, Grove City, OH, 43123 2050 E Dorothy Ln, Kettering, OH, 45420 1700 E Main St, Lancaster, OH, 43130 Wave 4 8489 Market St, Mentor, OH 44060 12588 Rockside Rd, Cleveland, OH 44125 1890 W Market St, Akron, OH 44313 405 Howe Ave, Cuyahoga Falls, OH 44221 241 W Wooster Rd, Barberton, OH 44203 426 East Waterloo Rd, Akron, OH 44319 1336 Whipple Ave NW, Canton, OH 44708 10560 Harrison Ave, Harrison, OH 45030 3640 Werk Rd, Cincinnati, OH 45248 110 S 7th St, Marietta, OH 45750 9025 Ohio River Rd, Wheelersburg, OH 45694 400 Silver Bridge Plz, Gallipolis, OH 45631 367 County Rd 406 Ste B, South Point, OH 45680 Pennsylvania Wave 2 866 Scranton Carbondale Hwy, Archbald, PA 18403 1010 O’Neill Hwy, Dunmore, PA 18512 7405 Westbranch Hwy, Lewisburg, PA 17837 Wave 3 2215 W 12th St, Erie, PA, 16505 820 Water St, Meadville, PA, 16335 697 Allegheny Blvd, Franklin, PA, 16323 2611 Ellwood Rd, New Castle, PA, 16101 5522 Shaffer Rd Unit 7, Du Bois, PA, 15801 2431 Columbia Blvd, Bloomsburg, PA, 17815 156 Eagles Glen Plz Ste 190, East Stroudsburg, PA, 18301 1241 Blakeslee Boulevard Dr E, Lehighton, PA, 18235 3437 Simpson Ferry Rd, Camp Hill, PA, 17011 467 W Penn Ave, Cleona, PA, 17042 Wave 4 750 Ohio River Blvd, Rochester, PA 15074 4717 McKnight Rd, Pittsburgh, PA 15237 2444 Philadelphia St, Indiana, PA 15701 11628 Penn Hills Dr, Pittsburgh, PA 15235 254 Oak Spring Rd, Washington, PA 15301 6041 State Route 30 Ste 20, Greensburg, PA 15601 1425 Scalp Ave Ste 130, Johnstown, PA 15904 389 N Reading Rd, Ephrata, PA 17522 500 Lincoln Hwy Ste 4, Fairless Hills, PA 19030 2140 White St, York, PA 17404 1150 Carlisle St, Hanover, PA 17331 Kentucky Wave 1 1342 Indian Mound Drive, Mount Sterling, KY 40353 Wave 2 200 Sycamore St Ste 151, Elizabethtown, KY 42701 472 Eastern Byp, Richmond, KY 40475 1714 Perryville Rd Ste 400, Danville, KY 40422 942 Happy Valley Rd, Glasgow, KY 42141 Wave 3 400 Campbellsville Byp, Campbellsville, KY, 42718 294 Village Ln, Hazard, KY, 41701 845 S Main St, London, KY, 40741 102 N 12th St, Middlesboro, KY, 40965 345 N Hwy 27 Ste 5, Somerset, KY, 42503 Wave 4 3000 Scottsville Rd, Bowling Green, KY 42104 Indiana Wave 2 195 S US Hwy 231, Jasper, IN 47546 North Carolina Wave 1 1432 E Dixie Dr, Asheboro, NC, 27203 Wave 2 1504 N Bridge St, Elkin, NC 28621 1826 W US Hwy 421 Ste K, Wilkesboro, NC 28697 526c US Highway 70 SW, Hickory, NC 28602 2587 W Franklin Blvd, Gastonia, NC 28052 1328 Carter St, Mount Airy, NC 27030 1063 Yadkinville Rd, Mocksville, NC 27028 100 Westwood Village Dr, Clemmons, NC 27012 12295 Capital Blvd, Wake Forest, NC 27587 1110 Julian R Allsbrook Hwy, Roanoke Rapids, NC 27870 955 N Wesleyan Blvd, Rocky Mount, NC 27804 4956 Long Beach Rd SE Ste 8, Southport, NC 28461 2407 N Herritage St Ste E, Kinston, NC 28501 Wave 3 685 S Hughes Blvd, Elizabeth City, NC, 27909 2725 Northwest Blvd, Newton, NC, 28658 1020 Crossroads Dr, Statesville, NC, 28625 376 West Plaza Drive, Mooresville, NC, 28117 403 N Generals Blvd, Lincolnton, NC, 28092 1728 E Dixon Blvd, Shelby, NC, 28152 601 Park St, Belmont, NC, 28012 3718 Battleground Ave, Greensboro, NC, 27410 1811 S Church St, Burlington, NC, 27215 838 Winston Rd, Lexington, NC, 27295 1700 Raleigh Rd Pkwy W Ste 104, Wilson, NC, 27896 609 Greenville Blvd SE, Greenville, NC, 27858 1403 S Pollock St, Selma, NC, 27576 1140 W Broad St, Dunn, NC, 28334 3915 Ramsey Street, Fayetteville, NC, 28311 3910 Raeford Rd, Fayetteville, NC, 28304 Wave 4 125 Weaver Blvd, Weaverville, NC 28787 273 Franklin Plaza Dr, Franklin, NC 28734 1176 Russ Ave, Waynesville, NC 28786 1639 US Highway 74A Byp, Spindale, NC 28160 1450 Andrews Rd, Murphy, NC 28906 1251 Burkemont Ave, Morganton, NC 28655 711 E Innes St, Salisbury, NC 28144 280 Concord Pkwy N, Concord, NC 28027 720 NC 24 27 Byp E, Albemarle, NC 28001 950 S Cannon Blvd Ste A, Kannapolis, NC 28083 1677 Westchester Dr, High Point, NC 27262 2531 Eastchester Dr, High Point, NC 27265 630 Lakestone Commons Ave, Fuquay Varina, NC 27526 2950 S Horner Blvd, Sanford, NC 27332 1371 N Sandhills Blvd, Aberdeen, NC 28315 1664 S Main St Ste B, Laurinburg, NC 28352 520 Berne Sq, New Bern, NC 28562 2750C N Roberts Ave, Lumberton, NC 28358 1110 Western Blvd, Jacksonville, NC 28540 2900 Arendell St Ste 19, Morehead City, NC 28557 6832 F Market St, Wilmington, NC 28405 4600 Main St Ste 1, Shallotte, NC 28470 South Carolina Wave 2 2349 Cherry Rd Ste 79, Rock Hill, SC 29732 1000 N Pine St, Spartanburg, SC 29303 915 S St Ste A, Simpsonville, SC 29681 1023A S Pendleton St, Easley, SC 29642 Wave 3 207 Oconee Square Dr, Seneca, SC, 29678 339 Bypass 72 NW, Greenwood, SC, 29649 421 Columbia Ave, Lexington, SC, 29072 3230 Augusta Rd, West Columbia, SC, 29170 Wave 4 1206 Highway 9 Bypass W, Lancaster, SC 29720 9221 Two Notch Rd Ste 30, Columbia, SC 29223 6169 St. Andrews Rd, Columbia, SC 29212 1641 Church St, Conway, SC 29526 710 Hwy 17 S Ste D, North Myrtle Beach, SC 29582 1370 S Kings Hwy, Myrtle Beach, SC 29577 1013 Old Highway 52, Moncks Corner, SC 29461 431 Saint James Ave Unit G, Goose Creek, SC 29445 10150 Dorchester Rd Unit 227, Summerville, SC 29485 328 Robert Smalls Pkwy, Beaufort, SC 29906 Tennessee Wave 1 1041 S Riverside Dr, Clarksville, TN, 37040 744 Nashville Pike, Gallatin, TN, 37066 220 Dickson Plaza Dr, Dickson, TN, 37055 Wave 2 1262 NW Broad St, Murfreesboro, TN 37129 4825 N Broadway St, Knoxville, TN 37918 420 Park Blvd, Rogersville, TN 37857 840 25th St NW, Cleveland, TN 37311 Wave 3 3110 E Oakland Ave, Johnson City, TN, 37601 2342 E Andrew Johnson Hwy, Morristown, TN, 37814 1475 E Andrew Johnson Hwy, Greeneville, TN, 37745 116 S Hall Rd, Alcoa, TN, 37701 201 Forks of the River Parkway, Sevierville, TN, 37862 264 E Broadway Blvd, Jefferson City, TN, 37760 Wave 4 633 S Jefferson Ave, Cookeville, TN 38501 1301 S James Campbell Blvd, Columbia, TN 38401 1913 Sherwood Rd, Kingsport, TN 37664 3901 Hixson Pike Ste 157, Chattanooga, TN 37415 1426 N Gateway Ave, Rockwood, TN 37854 Virginia Wave 1 2911 Hershberger Rd NW, Roanoke, VA, 24017 Wave 2 1090 Millwood Pike, Winchester, VA 22602 2715 W Main St, Waynesboro, VA 22980 4300 Portsmouth Blvd, Chesapeake, VA 23321 2646 Greensboro Rd, Martinsville, VA 24112 Wave 3 260 Remount Rd, Front Royal, VA, 22630 10611 Courthouse Rd, Fredericksburg, VA, 22407 10001 Hull Street Rd, North Chesterfield, VA, 23236 2660 Weir Place, Chester, VA, 23831 5260 Oaklawn Blvd, North Prince George, VA, 23860 4318 George Washington Mem Hwy, Yorktown, VA, 23692 Wave 4 180 Kents Ridge Rd, Richlands, VA 24641 1090 Bypass Rd, Vinton, VA 24179 6610 Mooretown Rd, Williamsburg, VA 23188 2318 W Mercury Blvd, Hampton, VA 23666 1851 E Little Creek Rd, Norfolk, VA 23518 1971 S Military Hwy, Chesapeake, VA 23320 West Virginia Wave 2 1228 Country Club Rd, Fairmont, WV 26554 104 Thompson Dr, Bridgeport, WV 26330 710 Beverly Pike, Elkins, WV 26241 118 Hills Plz, Charleston, WV 25312 110 Eagle School Rd, Martinsburg, WV 25404 7200 Mccorkle Ave SE, Charleston, WV 25304 Wave 3 291 Mall Rd, Oak Hill, WV, 25901 4522 Robert C Byrd Dr, Beckley, WV, 25801 1350 Stafford Dr, Princeton, WV, 24740
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