Business

Children are routinely exposed to adverts for weight-loss injections, diet products and cosmetic procedures online, according to a new report by Dame Rachel de Souza, who has called for tougher regulation of social media platforms. The report, based on a survey of 2,000 children aged 13 to 17 alongside focus groups, found that young people were being “bombarded” with content promoting body transformation, despite restrictions on certain types of advertising. Respondents reported seeing ads for...

Plant-based drinks maker Oatly has lost a long-running legal fight over its use of the word “milk” in marketing, after the UK Supreme Court ruled that it cannot trademark or use the slogan “post-milk generation” in connection with dairy alternatives. The case, brought by Dairy UK, centred on whether the term “milk”, which is protected under EU-derived food labelling rules still in force in the UK, can be used in a trade mark for plant-based...

London-based Mozart AI has raised $6 million in an oversubscribed seed funding round led by Balderton Capital, as the startup looks to reshape how music is created in the age of artificial intelligence. The fundraise follows a $1.1 million pre-seed round completed last summer, taking Mozart AI’s total funding to more than $7 million. The latest investment coincides with the launch of the company’s long-awaited mobile app and comes amid rapid early traction for its...

Growing numbers of Scottish spirits producers are showing signs of financial strain as weakening export demand, rising costs and trade barriers squeeze margins across the sector. Research by restructuring specialist BTG Begbies Traynor found that 69 Scottish distillers were facing “significant” or “critical” financial distress at the end of the year, up from 49 in the previous quarter. According to the Scotch Whisky Association, Scotland is home to more than 150 whisky distilleries, alongside more...

Retail spending picked up sharply in January as consumers flocked to post-Christmas sales, offering some relief to a sector hit by a subdued festive period and rising employment costs. Figures from the British Retail Consortium (BRC) and KPMG showed that retail sales increased by 2.7 per cent year-on-year last month, up from growth of just 1.2 per cent in December. The improvement suggests that many shoppers delayed spending before Christmas and instead waited for deeper...

Ed Miliband has approved a sweeping expansion of renewable energy projects across the UK, backing solar farms that could cover an area of farmland close to the size of Manchester, alongside dozens of new onshore wind developments. On Tuesday, the energy secretary awarded consumer-funded subsidies to 134 new solar farms across England and a further 23 in Wales and Scotland. He also approved 28 large onshore wind projects, mainly located on hillsides in Scotland and...

The founder of Starling Bank has reduced her shareholding in the fintech, as new filings reveal that Anne Boden has cut her stake during a secondary share sale that valued the business at up to £4 billion. Boden, who launched Starling in 2014 after senior roles at Allied Irish Banks and Lloyds, has lowered her holding to around 2.7 per cent from a previous 4.3 per cent, according to the disclosures. The move follows a...

UK semiconductor start-up Fractile has announced a £100 million expansion of its British operations, scaling up in London and Bristol as ministers intensify calls for greater domestic ownership of critical artificial intelligence technology. The investment, to be deployed over the next three years, will fund a new industrial hardware engineering facility in Bristol, alongside the expansion of Fractile’s existing UK sites and a significant increase in its domestic workforce. The company is focused on developing...

Apple and Google have agreed to make changes to their UK app stores following intervention by the country’s competition watchdog, after it concluded the two firms hold an “effective duopoly” over the sector. The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) said the tech giants have committed to a series of measures designed to improve transparency and competition. These include pledges not to give preferential treatment to their own apps and to be clearer about how third-party...

UK government borrowing costs climbed on Monday as markets reacted to intensifying pressure on Sir Keir Starmer, with investors pricing in heightened political risk and the possibility of a shift towards more left-leaning Labour policies. The yield on the benchmark 10-year UK government bond rose by as much as 0.08 percentage points to nearly 4.6 per cent, while yields on 30-year gilts reached their steepest level since November. Bond yields move inversely to prices, meaning...