The World Economic Forum says billionaire Elon Musk wasn't on the guest list for the annual meeting of business executives, global leaders and cultural trend-setters in Davos, Switzerland — despite what the Twitter owner claims. Musk isn't among the notables gathering in the ritzy Alpine town this week to talk about global issues, though he says he was invited. Forum spokesman Yann Zopf knocked that down Tuesday, saying the last time the Tesla CEO got an invitation was "not this year and not recently — last time in 2015." Musk said in a tweet Dec. 22: "My reason for declining the Davos invitation" was because it sounded boring.
European Union regulators have hit Facebook parent Meta with hundreds of millions in fines for privacy violations and banned the company from forcing users in the 27-nation bloc to agree to personalized ads based on their online activity. Ireland's Data Protection Commission imposed two fines Wednesday totaling 390 million euros. Its decision on the two cases that could shake up Meta's business model targeting users with ads based on what they do online. It's the commission's latest punishment for Meta for data privacy infringements, following four other fines for the company since 2021 totaling more than 900 million euros.
Consumer banking giant Wells Fargo agreed to pay $3.7 billion to settle charges that it harmed consumers by charging illegal fees and interest on auto loans and mortgages, as well as incorrectly applied overdraft fees against savings and checking accounts. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau on Tuesday ordered Wells to repay $2 billion to consumers and enacted a $1.7 billion penalty against the bank. It's the largest fine to date against Wells, which has spent years trying to rehabilitate itself after a series of scandals tied to its sales practices. The bank remains under supervision of the Federal Reserve.
California utility regulators are set to vote on changes to the state's booming rooftop solar market. The proposal up for consideration Thursday aims to more evenly spread the cost of energy while helping the state reduce its evening reliance on fossil fuels. Home solar customers get paid by their power companies for selling extra power into the energy grid. But the utilities say those payments are too generous and mean that solar customers aren't paying their fair share for overall maintenance of the electric grid. Solar companies warn the changes could cripple the industry as the state is trying to move away from fossil fuels.
