Walgreens agrees to $350 million opioid settlement
Walgreens $WBA (-0,11 %) has agreed to pay up to $350 million with the U.S. Department of Justice after the company was accused of illegally filling millions of prescriptions for opioids and other controlled substances over a period of more than a decade. The well-known drugstore must pay at least $300 million to the government and could owe another $50 million if a sale, merger or transfer occurs before 2032. The lawsuit, filed in January in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, accuses Walgreens of knowingly filling millions of illegal prescriptions between August 2012 and March 2023. Despite these allegations, Walgreens denied the allegations and emphasized that the agreement allows it to settle all opioid-related litigation with authorities and focus on restructuring. The company thus faces the challenge of not only resolving legal issues, but also realigning its business to be more stable in the market going forward.
Google faces antitrust challenge in the USA
In the USA, Google is facing $GOOGL (+1,6 %) faces an existential threat as the US government has set itself the goal of breaking up the company due to its monopoly-like behavior in the search engine sector. Hearings began in a Washington court on Monday and it is now being determined how the company should be punished. Federal authorities asked in their opening arguments that the court take drastic action to prevent Google from continuing to enter into monopoly-like contracts with companies like Apple that protect its search engine from competition. Google's lawyer countered that the proposed measures would not promote competition, but could unfairly favor smaller competitors. This lawsuit is the result of a lawsuit filed four and a half years ago accusing Google of using its power on the Internet to hinder competition and innovation. A federal judge has already found that Google has entered into anti-competitive contracts to establish its search engine as the preferred source of information on various devices. The upcoming negotiations will be decisive in determining how the competitive situation in the online sector will be shaped.
Sources:
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/walgreens-pay-350-million-u-024811733.html
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/google-face-off-us-government-002008266.html