Big tech ‘lawyering up’ to challenge data breach fines

Seen & Heard: FAO Scwharz toys for Dublin; Dutch target incinerator stake

Dublin Waste to Energy in Ringsend. Photograph: Nick Bradshaw
Dublin Waste to Energy in Ringsend. Photograph: Nick Bradshaw

Leading technology firms based in the State are "lawyering up" and behaving in a "more combative" manner ahead of expected multimillion euro fines for data breaches, the Data Protection Commissioner Helen Dixon told the Sunday Business Post in an interview.

The exchanges between the two sides now have an “edge”, Ms Dixon said. “It is very intensive and certainly, as it concerns the investigations, it is probably characterisable as more combative.”

FAO Schwarz to open in Arnotts

US toy store FAO Schwarz is to open a 6,000sq ft shop in Dublin department store Arnotts, reports the Sunday Independent.

The store, which featured in the Tom Hanks film Big, will open in late October and is part of Arnotts' strategy to create a family "destination". Brown Thomas Arnotts managing director Donald McDonald said the partnership with FAO Schwarz was a "huge coup".

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FAO Schwarz will then be joined by another US brand, Pottery Barn, which will bring its nursery range to Ireland for the first time.

Dutch interest in Ringsend energy facility

Dutch infrastructure fund DIF Management plans to buy a stake in the company that runs the €500 million waste-to-energy facility in Ringsend in Dublin, according to the Sunday Times.

DIF, which already has a stake in the M50 and East Link toll facilities, will take a minority stake in Dublin Waste to Energy, the company operating the Ringsend facility. The plant is owned by US waste management company Covanta and a group owned by Australian investment bank Macquarie.

TransferMate strikes deal with US banking giant

Payments company TransferMate has agreed a deal to handle global payments for Wells Fargo, the third-biggest bank in the US, according to the Sunday Independent.

The strategic partnership between the bank and the Kilkenny-headquartered fintech company will see the TransferMate platform handle all of Wells Fargo’s inbound payments into the US from overseas. TransferMate will add 25 staff in New York and North Carolina and 25 in Kilkenny to facilitate the business.

RTÉ Guide to be flogged off?

RTÉ is weighing up the sale of the RTÉ Guide, having appointed accountants KPMG to review options for Ireland's best-selling magazine, reports the Sunday Times.

RTÉ told the newspaper that no decisions had been made and it had no further comment to make on the possible offloading of the listings publication, which had an average circulation of 43,195 in 2018.

Paddy Power investigates problem gambling

Paddy Power Betfair is conducting tests on problem gamblers as it attempts to improve its efforts to tackle the issue, according to the Sunday Business Post.

Speaking on an industry panel about advertising restrictions, Paddy Power Betfair chief risk officer Tanya Horgan said the company had been running "test groups and control groups" on people flagged as potential addicts by their systems to see if its current interventions were working.