Nike fined $14 million for blocking cross-border sales

[mountaineer]

Nike fined $14 million for blocking cross-border sales
Reuters
March 25, 2019

U.S. sportswear maker Nike was hit with a 12.5 million euro ($14.14 million) fine Monday for blocking cross-border sales of soccer merchandise of some of Europe's best-known clubs, the latest EU sanction against such restrictions.

The European Commission said Nike's illegal practices occurred between 2004 to 2017 and related to licensed merchandise for FC Barcelona, Manchester United, Juventus, Inter Milan, AS Roma and the French Football Federation.  ...

Nike's practices included clauses in contracts prohibiting out-of-territory sales by licensees and threats to end agreements if licensees ignored the clauses. Its fine was cut by 40 percent after it cooperated with the EU enforcer.

Full story here

Sleazy company. Speaking of sleaze:

UPDATE: Nike shares zig-zag after Avenatti tweet is followed by criminal indictment of Avenatti
Published: Mar 25, 2019 1:28 p.m. ET
By Ciara Linnane    Corporate news editor

Nike Inc. shares NKE, -0.90% fell, then recovered most of their losses, Monday, after duelling tweets from lawyer Michael Avenatti and court reporters citing federal prosecutors.

Avenatti was the first out with a tweet that said he would hold a press conference on Tuesday to disclose a "major high school/college basketball scandal" involving the sporting goods giant.

Avenatti, who until recently was attorney for adult entertainment star Stormy Daniels, said: "This criminal conduct reaches the highest levels of Nike and involves some of the biggest names in college basketball."

 Just moments later, court reporters tweeted that federal prosecutors were preparing charges against Avenatti alleging he had tried to extort Nike by threatening to release damaging information unless they agreed to pay him and a client millions of dollar.

The U.S. Attorney General for the Southern District of New York said it will hold a press conference at 2.30 p.m. Eastern to announce those charges. Separately, the U.S. Attorney for the Central District of California said it has arrested Avenatti over allegations he embezzled a client's money in order to pay his own expenses and debts and also defrauded a bank by using phony tax returns to obtain millions of dollars in loans.  ...

Rest of story

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Michael Avenatti Is Charged With Trying to Extort Nike
By Chris Dolmetsch and Erik Larson
March 25, 2019, 1:05 PM EDT Updated on March 25, 2019, 1:39 PM EDT

California lawyer Michael Avenatti was arrested and charged by federal prosecutors in New York with attempting to extort millions of dollars out of Nike Inc. by threatening to release damaging information about the company.

Avenatti is alleged to have told Nike he would cancel a press conference critical of the sports-apparel company only if it paid an unidentified client $1.5 million, and hired him and another California lawyer to conduct an internal investigation for $15 million to $25 million. Nike did not meet his demands.

“I’ll go take ten billion dollars off your client’s market cap. But I’m not f---ing around,” Avenatti told attorneys for Nike in a March 20 phone call, according to a complaint unsealed Monday.   ... More at Bloomberg

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Attorney Michael Avenatti arrested in alleged Nike extortion scheme: Prosecutors originally appeared on abcnews.go.com

Federal prosecutors in New York and California announced charges against Michael Avenatti on Monday in separate cases targeting the former personal attorney for adult film actress Stormy Daniels.

Avenatti, who was arrested in New York City on Monday morning, stands accused of attempting to extort Nike for $20 million in New York and faces additional charges of bank- and tax-fraud in California.

https://www.yahoo.com/gma/michael-avenatti-under-arrest-charged-extortion-prosecutors-172005794--abc-news-topstories.html

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SDNY press conference on charges

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Merged related threads

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Porn star Stormy Daniels said Monday that she’s “saddened but not shocked” by the charges filed today against lawyer Michael Avenatti, who helped make her a household name over claims she had an affair with President Trump.

“I made the decision more than a month ago to terminate Michael’s services after discovering that he had dealt with me dishonestly and there will be more announcements to come,” she tweeted.

https://nypost.com/2019/03/25/stormy-daniels-not-shocked-by-charges-against-michael-avenatti/

[mountaineer]

Yeah, taking the high road, that's Stormy.