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(Reuters) -Former British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said on Thursday he has joined U.S. tech giant Microsoft and AI startup Anthropic as a senior adviser. Sunak, who stepped down as the leader of the opposition Conservative Party following a defeat in the general election last July, continues to serve as a member of the British Parliament. In a LinkedIn post, Sunak said that the proceeds from the roles will be donated in full to The Richmond Project, a charity he started with his wife Akshata Murty. Amazon and Google-backed Anthropic said that the internally focused, part-time advisory role fully complied with the conditions of the Advisory Committee on Business Appointments, or ACOBA, which oversees rules on new jobs for former ministers and senior civil servants. Sunak will advise Anthropic on strategy, macroeconomic and geopolitical trends. The role focuses on global strategic matters, not UK-specific policy, and Sunak is prohibited from initiating contact with UK government officials on behalf of Anthropic.  At Microsoft, Sunak will provide strategic perspectives on macroeconomic and geopolitical trends. He will be speaking at the annual Microsoft Summit, according to an advice letter by ACOBA's interim chair, Isabel Doverty, posted to its website on Thursday. Sunak will not be advising on any UK policy matters. The former prime minister cannot lobby for the firm for two years from his last day in ministerial office, nor draw on any privileged information from his time in government, according to the letter. Microsoft did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment. The development follows Sunak's July return to Goldman Sachs in an advisory role. He had previously worked at the Wall Street bank as an analyst in the early 2000s, before joining a series of hedge funds. (Reporting by Juby Babu in Mexico City; Editing by Alan Barona)

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By Chris Kirkham, Rachael Levy and Abhirup Roy LOS ANGELES (Reuters) -When Tesla's board of directors offered Elon Musk the biggest executive pay package in corporate history in September, it reassured investors that he would have to achieve the equivalent of “Mars-shot milestones” to earn $878 billion in Tesla stock over 10 years.  The board’s proposal said Musk would have to “completely transform Tesla and society as we know it” in robotics and autonomous driving as well as stock value and profits. Conversely, Musk would get “zero” unless he meets those “incredibly ambitious” goals. Yet Musk could reap tens of billions of dollars without meeting most of those targets, according to a Reuters analysis of his performance goals and more than a dozen experts in executive pay, company valuations, robotics and automotive trends including autonomous driving. He could collect more than $50 billion by hitting a handful of the board’s easier goals that won’t necessarily revolutionize Tesla’s products or business, the Reuters review found. Even hitting just two of the easiest targets, along with modest stock growth, would net Musk $26 billion, more than the lifetime pay of the next eight best-paid CEOs combined, a group that includes Meta Platforms' Mark Zuckerberg, Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison, Apple's Tim Cook, and Nvidia's Jensen Huang, according to an analysis for Reuters by research firm Equilar.  Musk’s vehicle sales goals are exceptionally easy to achieve, according to four automotive experts. If Musk sells 1.2 million cars a year over the next decade, on average, he earns $8.2 billion in stock if Tesla’s market value grows from $1.4 trillion today to $2 trillion in 2035, well under long-term market-average growth. That’s a half-million fewer cars per year than Tesla sold in 2024. On Tuesday, Tesla unveiled lower-cost versions of its best-selling Model Y SUV and Model 3 sedan to reverse falling sales. Three other product-development goals are written in vague language that could provide Musk hefty payouts without significantly boosting profit, according to six robotics or autonomous-driving industry experts who reviewed Musk’s goals for Reuters. Tesla and Musk did not respond to requests for comment. In a statement, a spokesperson for the Tesla board said: "The proposed pay package is actually worth zero to our CEO unless and until the shareholders see the value of the company nearly double and an operational milestone is met." The board’s pay proposal requires Musk to remain a Tesla executive for at least seven-and-a-half years to collect any stock compensation. Musk, however, would get the voting rights associated with the share awards as soon as he earns them. Musk said last month on his social media platform X that the package is “not about ‘compensation,’ but about me having enough influence over Tesla to ensure safety if we build millions of robots.” In its proposal, the board said Musk is “motivated by more than just conventional forms of compensation.” SELF DRIVING CARS, ROBOTAXIS AND ROBOTICS Each goal grants Musk 1% of Tesla stock if he also reaches valuation milestones between $2 trillion and $8.5 trillion. One goal requires 10 million subscriptions to Tesla’s “Full Self-Driving” (FSD) software, which can’t currently drive itself without human intervention.  The U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said Thursday it is opening an investigation into 2.88 million FSD-equipped Tesla vehicles over more than 50 reports of traffic-safety violations and a series of crashes. Musk's performance goal contains no requirement that Tesla make FSD fully autonomous, instead requiring only an “advanced driving system.” That’s a “made-up term” with no industry-standard definition, said William Widen, a University of Miami law professor specializing in autonomous driving. Autonomous-driving experts say the subscription target might be easily met by dropping the price, currently $8,000 upfront or $99 a month. Tesla’s leading electric-vehicle rival, China’s BYD, already offers a similar system for free. “If I were Musk’s personal employment lawyer, I would like these definitions,” said Matthew Wansley, a professor at New York’s Cardozo School of Law who focuses on autonomous driving. Another goal requires one million robotaxis in commercial operation and specifies cars “without a human driver in the vehicle.” That’s a potentially more restrictive definition but four autonomous-vehicle experts said it could be interpreted to allow for humans controlling vehicles remotely or from the passenger seat – as Tesla does now in its first small-scale robotaxi test in Austin, Texas.  Musk’s employment deal also sets a target of one million robots, an apparent reference to the Optimus humanoid robots Musk has long promised. But the goal doesn’t specify "humanoid" and could be interpreted broadly, two robotics-industry experts said. It defines "bot" as "any robot or other physical product with mobility using artificial intelligence."  “It’s a totally vague formulation,” said Christian Rokseth, an analyst with market research firm Humanoid.guide specializing in robotics and artificial intelligence. Investors, he said, are expecting a humanoid robot.  MODEST TARGETS WORTH BILLIONS Hitting any two product goals in a decade, along with a $2.5 trillion valuation, pays Musk $26.4 billion in stock. Hitting three targets and a $3 trillion valuation pays him $54.6 billion.  That means Musk could earn these amounts without delivering driverless Teslas, the signature product he’s promised for a decade. Gene Munster, managing partner at Tesla investor Deepwater Asset Management, said that despite the loose language in his performance agreement, investors would ultimately hold him accountable for delivering transformational products. “If people start smelling there’s something goofy here, he's in trouble,” Munster said. In its pay proposal, Tesla’s board declared Musk the only person capable of transforming Tesla into an artificial-intelligence juggernaut. The board added that Musk, during negotiations, raised the prospect of “prioritizing other ventures” if he and the board couldn’t agree on compensation. Corporate governance experts said the board is taking a huge risk by so explicitly staking its future on one leader. Wei Jiang, vice dean at Emory University’s business school, said Tesla’s board has granted Musk a “monopoly” on Tesla’s top job. Good corporate governance, she said, requires embracing a “competitive and fluid market for CEOs.” THE HARD PART: PROFITS Musk’s hardest performance targets are likely those involving profit, a measure with no room for interpretation. The directors set eight profit goals between $50 billion and $400 billion in earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization, compared to Tesla’s 2024 earnings of $16.6 billion. Tesla’s EV business, which accounts for almost all its revenue, is deteriorating with aging models facing fierce competition. Its only newer model, the Cybertruck, has flopped. The way Musk’s compensation is structured, however, allows for massive payouts without hitting any profit target. Every goal combined with a market-value increase offers the same 1% stock payout. So Musk gets the same pay for meeting the relatively easy vehicle sales and FSD-subscription goals, for instance, as he would for boosting earnings five-fold to $80 billion.  The board’s valuation goals may prove far easier than its profit targets. Tesla’s value could hit $2 trillion, for instance, if shares grow a modest 6.4% annually over the decade following the board’s Sept. 3 pay-package approval. That’s slower growth than the S&P 500’s 8.5% annual average over the past 30 years and less than half the Nasdaq’s 13.2% average. Seth Goldstein, a Morningstar analyst who tracks Tesla, said its…

(The article has been published through a syndicated feed. Except for the headline, the content has been published verbatim. Liability lies with original publisher.)

By Chris Kirkham, Rachael Levy and Abhirup Roy LOS ANGELES (Reuters) -When Tesla's board of directors offered Elon Musk the biggest executive pay package in corporate history in September, it reassured investors that he would have to achieve the equivalent of “Mars-shot milestones” to earn $878 billion in Tesla stock over 10 years.  The board’s proposal said Musk would have to “completely transform Tesla and society as we know it” in robotics and autonomous driving as well as stock value and profits. Conversely, Musk would get “zero” unless he meets those “incredibly ambitious” goals. Yet Musk could reap tens of billions of dollars without meeting most of those targets, according to a Reuters analysis of his performance goals and more than a dozen experts in executive pay, company valuations, robotics and automotive trends including autonomous driving. He could collect more than $50 billion by hitting a handful of the board’s easier goals that won’t necessarily revolutionize Tesla’s products or business, the Reuters review found. Even hitting just two of the easiest targets, along with modest stock growth, would net Musk $26 billion, more than the lifetime pay of the next eight best-paid CEOs combined, a group that includes Meta Platforms' Mark Zuckerberg, Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison, Apple's Tim Cook, and Nvidia's Jensen Huang, according to an analysis for Reuters by research firm Equilar.  Musk’s vehicle sales goals are exceptionally easy to achieve, according to four automotive experts. If Musk sells 1.2 million cars a year over the next decade, on average, he earns $8.2 billion in stock if Tesla’s market value grows from $1.4 trillion today to $2 trillion in 2035, well under long-term market-average growth. That’s a half-million fewer cars per year than Tesla sold in 2024. On Tuesday, Tesla unveiled lower-cost versions of its best-selling Model Y SUV and Model 3 sedan to reverse falling sales. Three other product-development goals are written in vague language that could provide Musk hefty payouts without significantly boosting profit, according to six robotics or autonomous-driving industry experts who reviewed Musk’s goals for Reuters. Tesla and Musk did not respond to requests for comment. In a statement, a spokesperson for the Tesla board said: "The proposed pay package is actually worth zero to our CEO unless and until the shareholders see the value of the company nearly double and an operational milestone is met." The board’s pay proposal requires Musk to remain a Tesla executive for at least seven-and-a-half years to collect any stock compensation. Musk, however, would get the voting rights associated with the share awards as soon as he earns them. Musk said last month on his social media platform X that the package is “not about ‘compensation,’ but about me having enough influence over Tesla to ensure safety if we build millions of robots.” In its proposal, the board said Musk is “motivated by more than just conventional forms of compensation.” SELF DRIVING CARS, ROBOTAXIS AND ROBOTICS Each goal grants Musk 1% of Tesla stock if he also reaches valuation milestones between $2 trillion and $8.5 trillion. One goal requires 10 million subscriptions to Tesla’s “Full Self-Driving” (FSD) software, which can’t currently drive itself without human intervention.  The U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said Thursday it is opening an investigation into 2.88 million FSD-equipped Tesla vehicles over more than 50 reports of traffic-safety violations and a series of crashes. Musk's performance goal contains no requirement that Tesla make FSD fully autonomous, instead requiring only an “advanced driving system.” That’s a “made-up term” with no industry-standard definition, said William Widen, a University of Miami law professor specializing in autonomous driving. Autonomous-driving experts say the subscription target might be easily met by dropping the price, currently $8,000 upfront or $99 a month. Tesla’s leading electric-vehicle rival, China’s BYD, already offers a similar system for free. “If I were Musk’s personal employment lawyer, I would like these definitions,” said Matthew Wansley, a professor at New York’s Cardozo School of Law who focuses on autonomous driving. Another goal requires one million robotaxis in commercial operation and specifies cars “without a human driver in the vehicle.” That’s a potentially more restrictive definition but four autonomous-vehicle experts said it could be interpreted to allow for humans controlling vehicles remotely or from the passenger seat – as Tesla does now in its first small-scale robotaxi test in Austin, Texas.  Musk’s employment deal also sets a target of one million robots, an apparent reference to the Optimus humanoid robots Musk has long promised. But the goal doesn’t specify "humanoid" and could be interpreted broadly, two robotics-industry experts said. It defines "bot" as "any robot or other physical product with mobility using artificial intelligence."  “It’s a totally vague formulation,” said Christian Rokseth, an analyst with market research firm Humanoid.guide specializing in robotics and artificial intelligence. Investors, he said, are expecting a humanoid robot.  MODEST TARGETS WORTH BILLIONS Hitting any two product goals in a decade, along with a $2.5 trillion valuation, pays Musk $26.4 billion in stock. Hitting three targets and a $3 trillion valuation pays him $54.6 billion.  That means Musk could earn these amounts without delivering driverless Teslas, the signature product he’s promised for a decade. Gene Munster, managing partner at Tesla investor Deepwater Asset Management, said that despite the loose language in his performance agreement, investors would ultimately hold him accountable for delivering transformational products. “If people start smelling there’s something goofy here, he's in trouble,” Munster said. In its pay proposal, Tesla’s board declared Musk the only person capable of transforming Tesla into an artificial-intelligence juggernaut. The board added that Musk, during negotiations, raised the prospect of “prioritizing other ventures” if he and the board couldn’t agree on compensation. Corporate governance experts said the board is taking a huge risk by so explicitly staking its future on one leader. Wei Jiang, vice dean at Emory University’s business school, said Tesla’s board has granted Musk a “monopoly” on Tesla’s top job. Good corporate governance, she said, requires embracing a “competitive and fluid market for CEOs.” THE HARD PART: PROFITS Musk’s hardest performance targets are likely those involving profit, a measure with no room for interpretation. The directors set eight profit goals between $50 billion and $400 billion in earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization, compared to Tesla’s 2024 earnings of $16.6 billion. Tesla’s EV business, which accounts for almost all its revenue, is deteriorating with aging models facing fierce competition. Its only newer model, the Cybertruck, has flopped. The way Musk’s compensation is structured, however, allows for massive payouts without hitting any profit target. Every goal combined with a market-value increase offers the same 1% stock payout. So Musk gets the same pay for meeting the relatively easy vehicle sales and FSD-subscription goals, for instance, as he would for boosting earnings five-fold to $80 billion.  The board’s valuation goals may prove far easier than its profit targets. Tesla’s value could hit $2 trillion, for instance, if shares grow a modest 6.4% annually over the decade following the board’s Sept. 3 pay-package approval. That’s slower growth than the S&P 500’s 8.5% annual average over the past 30 years and less than half the Nasdaq’s 13.2% average. Seth Goldstein, a Morningstar analyst who tracks Tesla, said its…

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WASHINGTON (Reuters) -Alphabet-owned Google said dozens of companies have been affected by an ambitious hacking campaign that targeted Oracle's suite of business products. The company said in a blog post Thursday that 'mass amounts of customer data' were stolen in the process. (Reporting by Raphael Satter)

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By Helen Reid LONDON (Reuters) -Online fast-fashion retailer Shein is strengthening its controls after a string of fines over data privacy breaches, fake discounts and greenwashing, according to a letter to investors, internal memos and two sources with direct knowledge of the plan. Shein, which ships cheap clothes and accessories direct from factories in China to more than 150 countries, has grown to become the world's biggest fast fashion retailer by sales. But its rapid expansion has been accompanied by regulatory breaches in multiple markets. In a letter to investors reviewed by Reuters, executive chairman Donald Tang said the company has created a "Business Integrity Group" that connects compliance, governance and external affairs teams, and has also expanded its internal audit capabilities to strengthen "discipline". In the past three months Shein has faced mounting penalties: a 150 million euro ($174.53 million) fine from France over website cookies collecting consumer data without consent, a 40 million euro penalty from France's antitrust agency for misleading discounts, and a 1 million euro fine from Italy over greenwashing. Shein is contesting the 150 million euro fine. Further fines could follow if a European consumer protection probe finds that products sold on its website fail to meet EU safety standards. Founded in China and headquartered in Singapore, Shein has filed for a stock market listing in Hong Kong, after failed attempts to list in New York and London. According to the letter, Shein has piloted enhanced internal controls in the United States, Canada, Brazil and Mexico. The company declined to comment on the letter's contents. It is currently hiring for two governance, risk and compliance policy analysts and one internal audit manager in Los Angeles, according to its career website and LinkedIn. It was not clear if the jobs being advertised are additional roles. The internal overhaul focuses on areas where Shein faces legal risk, like breaches of copyright and product safety laws, a separate source with direct knowledge of the matter said. As Shein's global profile has grown, so too have its risks, prompting senior management to allocate more resources to address persistent compliance problems, the source said. MOUNTING FINES AND SLOWING GROWTH Tang acknowledged "heightened challenges" in the second quarter, citing U.S. tariffs and "intensifying political and regulatory headwinds" in Europe. The letter, which has not been previously reported, was sent on August 25, according to a second source. "In Q2 we grew firmly in line with both our global expansion plan and our financial projections," Tang wrote. The end of duty-free treatment for low-value online orders has hit Shein's U.S. sales – the company's largest market – forcing it to raise prices to offset higher costs.  Coresight Research estimates Shein's U.S. revenue will grow 20.1% in 2025, to $17.2 billion, down from estimated growth of 50% in 2024. Shein has shifted more of its marketing spending to Europe (including the UK), which is expected to surpass the U.S. in revenue for the first time this year, growing 30.7% to $17.9 billion.  GROWING CRITICISM OF SHEIN'S BUSINESS PRACTICES Europe, especially France, has become the epicentre of scrutiny of Shein's business practices. An investigation by a French agency of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) prompted by a complaint from two French lawmakers found last week that Shein does not comply with OECD guidelines on responsible business conduct, due diligence, working rights, environmental standards, and transparency. "Information about the activity of the group, its finances and its governance remains extremely rare, hindering a clear analysis of its business, its revenue and its structure in the European Union and globally," the final report, published on September 29, stated.      A Shein spokesperson said the investigation "at times did not reflect the neutral mediation intended by the OECD framework" and rejected claims that Shein is in breach of various EU legislation, "specifically those that are not yet applicable".   ($1 = 0.8595 euros) (Reporting by Helen Reid; Editing by Elaine Hardcastle)

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(Reuters) -Fintech firm Younited, which provides personal loans and credit, announced it secured a 400 million euros ($464.48 million) warehouse financing facility with U.S. bank Citi, backed by French and Italian consumer loans. Warehouse financing is a short-term financing option in which businesses can use their inventory as collateral. WHY IT'S IMPORTANT: Younited's latest financing comes as Europe tries to free up more capital for lending and boost its underdeveloped securitisation market in order to spur sluggish economic growth. Moreover, in recent years, fintech companies and neo-banks, with their digital technologies, have gained market share from older, more established players. KEY QUOTE: "The signing of this warehouse financing facility complements Younited's significant retail deposit funding base and provides significant diversification, while adding balance-sheet flexibility towards continued regular use of the public ABS (asset-backed securities) market for refinancing transactions," said Xavier Pierart, Deputy CEO of Younited. ($1 = 0.8612 euros) (Reporting by Sudip Kar-Gupta; Editing by Vijay Kishore)

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(Reuters) -Reflection AI, a startup backed by Nvidia, said on Thursday it has raised $2 billion in a new funding round that values the company at $8 billion, as investor interest in artificial intelligence remains unabated. The funding round, led by Nvidia, saw participation from prominent investors, including former Google CEO Eric Schmidt, Citi, and Donald Trump Jr.-backed private equity firm 1789 Capital, as well as existing investors Lightspeed and Sequoia. Founded in 2024 by former DeepMind researchers Misha Laskin and Ioannis Antonoglou, Reflection develops tools that automate software development, a fast-growing use case for AI. The investment comes as the AI sector continues to attract significant interest from venture capital firms and investors. Global venture funding in the third quarter of 2025 rose 38% from a year earlier to $97 billion, with around 46% of the total invested in AI firms. Reflection's new valuation marks a sharp step up from its previous round, when it raised $130 million at a $545 million valuation, according to PitchBook data. The company's peers in the AI market include OpenAI and China's DeepSeek, among others. (Reporting by Pritam Biswas in Bengaluru; Editing by Tasim Zahid)

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(Reuters) -Microsoft said an outage of its suite of productivity software has been resolved on Thursday. "We identified that a portion of network infrastructure in North America was misconfigured, resulting in impact," Microsoft 365 said on its status page on X. Initial reports had showed issues accessing Microsoft Teams and Exchange Online, it said earlier. The number of users reporting issues with Microsoft 365 had fallen to 136 as of 5.38 p.m. ET, compared with 17,000 earlier, according to Downdetector, which tracks outages by collating status reports from a number of sources. Downdetector's numbers are based on user-submitted reports. The actual number of affected users may vary. (Reporting by Juby Babu in Mexico City; Editing by Sahal Muhammed)

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(Reuters) -Reflection AI, a startup backed by Nvidia, said on Thursday it has raised $2 billion in a new funding round that values the company at $8 billion, as investor interest in artificial intelligence remains unabated. The funding round, led by Nvidia, saw participation from prominent investors, including former Google CEO Eric Schmidt, Citi, and Donald Trump Jr.-backed private equity firm 1789 Capital, as well as existing investors Lightspeed and Sequoia. Founded in 2024 by former DeepMind researchers Misha Laskin and Ioannis Antonoglou, Reflection develops tools that automate software development, a fast-growing use case for AI. The investment comes as the AI sector continues to attract significant interest from venture capital firms and investors. Global venture funding in the third quarter of 2025 rose 38% from a year earlier to $97 billion, with around 46% of the total invested in AI firms. Reflection's new valuation marks a sharp step up from its previous round, when it raised $130 million at a $545 million valuation, according to PitchBook data. The company's peers in the AI market include OpenAI and China's DeepSeek, among others. (Reporting by Pritam Biswas in Bengaluru; Editing by Tasim Zahid)

(The article has been published through a syndicated feed. Except for the headline, the content has been published verbatim. Liability lies with original publisher.)

By Helen Reid LONDON (Reuters) -Online fast-fashion retailer Shein is strengthening its controls after a string of fines over data privacy breaches, fake discounts and greenwashing, according to a letter to investors, internal memos and two sources with direct knowledge of the plan. Shein, which ships cheap clothes and accessories direct from factories in China to more than 150 countries, has grown to become the world's biggest fast fashion retailer by sales. But its rapid expansion has been accompanied by regulatory breaches in multiple markets. In a letter to investors reviewed by Reuters, executive chairman Donald Tang said the company has created a "Business Integrity Group" that connects compliance, governance and external affairs teams, and has also expanded its internal audit capabilities to strengthen "discipline". In the past three months Shein has faced mounting penalties: a 150 million euro ($174.53 million) fine from France over website cookies collecting consumer data without consent, a 40 million euro penalty from France's antitrust agency for misleading discounts, and a 1 million euro fine from Italy over greenwashing. Shein is contesting the 150 million euro fine. Further fines could follow if a European consumer protection probe finds that products sold on its website fail to meet EU safety standards. Founded in China and headquartered in Singapore, Shein has filed for a stock market listing in Hong Kong, after failed attempts to list in New York and London. According to the letter, Shein has piloted enhanced internal controls in the United States, Canada, Brazil and Mexico. The company declined to comment on the letter's contents. It is currently hiring for two governance, risk and compliance policy analysts and one internal audit manager in Los Angeles, according to its career website and LinkedIn. It was not clear if the jobs being advertised are additional roles. The internal overhaul focuses on areas where Shein faces legal risk, like breaches of copyright and product safety laws, a separate source with direct knowledge of the matter said. As Shein's global profile has grown, so too have its risks, prompting senior management to allocate more resources to address persistent compliance problems, the source said. MOUNTING FINES AND SLOWING GROWTH Tang acknowledged "heightened challenges" in the second quarter, citing U.S. tariffs and "intensifying political and regulatory headwinds" in Europe. The letter, which has not been previously reported, was sent on August 25, according to a second source. "In Q2 we grew firmly in line with both our global expansion plan and our financial projections," Tang wrote. The end of duty-free treatment for low-value online orders has hit Shein's U.S. sales – the company's largest market – forcing it to raise prices to offset higher costs.  Coresight Research estimates Shein's U.S. revenue will grow 20.1% in 2025, to $17.2 billion, down from estimated growth of 50% in 2024. Shein has shifted more of its marketing spending to Europe (including the UK), which is expected to surpass the U.S. in revenue for the first time this year, growing 30.7% to $17.9 billion.  GROWING CRITICISM OF SHEIN'S BUSINESS PRACTICES Europe, especially France, has become the epicentre of scrutiny of Shein's business practices. An investigation by a French agency of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) prompted by a complaint from two French lawmakers found last week that Shein does not comply with OECD guidelines on responsible business conduct, due diligence, working rights, environmental standards, and transparency. "Information about the activity of the group, its finances and its governance remains extremely rare, hindering a clear analysis of its business, its revenue and its structure in the European Union and globally," the final report, published on September 29, stated.      A Shein spokesperson said the investigation "at times did not reflect the neutral mediation intended by the OECD framework" and rejected claims that Shein is in breach of various EU legislation, "specifically those that are not yet applicable".   ($1 = 0.8595 euros) (Reporting by Helen Reid; Editing by Elaine Hardcastle)

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