Business briefs

Published 3:31 pm Tuesday, May 7, 2024

A deadline is looming for millions of businesses who may be entitled to a payout in a $5.5 billion antitrust settlement with Visa and Mastercard. Any businesses that accepted Visa and/or Mastercard credit or debit cards in the U.S. between January 1, 2004 and January 25, 2019 may be eligible to receive part of the settlement. Eligible owners whose businesses have closed can also submit a claim. The settlement stems from a 2005 lawsuit that alleged merchants paid excessive fees to accept Visa and Mastercard credit cards, and that Visa and Mastercard and their member banks violated antitrust laws.

The Walt Disney Co. moved to a loss in its second quarter, hampered by significantly higher restructuring and impairment charges, but its adjusted profit topped Wall Street’s view and its streaming business was profitable. Theme parks also continued to be a strength. While Disney said Tuesday that it foresees its streaming business softening in the third quarter due to Disney+Hotstar, it expects its combined streaming businesses to be profitable in the fourth quarter and to be a meaningful future growth driver for the company, with further improvements in profitability in fiscal 2025.

Federal safety investigators want Tesla to tell them how it developed the fix in a recall of more than 2 million vehicles with the company’s Autopilot partially automated driving system. Investigators with the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration have concerns about whether the recall remedy worked because Tesla has reported 20 crashes since it was issued in December. In a letter to Tesla, investigators wrote that they could not find a difference between warnings to the driver to pay attention before the recall and after the recall fix was sent out in an online software update.

More than 80% of residents in Brazil’s southern city of Porto Alegre don’t have running water one week after major flooding. The floods have left at least 90 people dead and more than 130 missing. Five of the city’s six water treatment facilities aren’t working. Porto Alegre Mayor Sebastião Melo pleaded on Tuesday with residents to comply with his water rationing decree. Melo ordered the rationing of potable water indefinitely. Melo’s decree says running water should be used exclusively for “essential consumption.” Local shops have also been short on water supplies. More rain is expected in Rio Grande do Sul state into next week.

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