🗞️ Santa Claude

Good morning. Sony Music and Warner Chappell are taking Anthropic to court, accusing the AI lab of training its Claude chatbot on pirated copies of hit songs including Mariah Carey's "All I Want for Christmas Is You" and Marvin Gaye's "Ain't No Mountain High Enough".

The lawsuit calls it a "brazen campaign" of illegal torrenting and scraping, and with US copyright law allowing up to US$150,000 in damages per song, the bill could run into the billions.

Since Claude can write you a Christmas carol on request, it now has to explain in court why it needed someone else's first.

All the headlines and more below...

ACCC WARNS AI IS MAKING IT EASIER FOR "DODGY OPERATORS" TO IMPERSONATE REAL BUSINESSES ONLINE

The ACCC has told consumers they "can no longer rely on appearance alone" to spot fake online stores, as AI tools allow scammers to generate professional-looking websites, product images and customer reviews in hours. The watchdog cracked down on 4 so-called ghost stores last year - online retailers that claim to be Australian but drop-ship low-quality goods from offshore - and a further 10 suspected operators shut down around December 2025 after the ACCC engaged Shopify and Meta.

What once required a web developer, graphic designer, copywriter and photographer can now be done by one person with no technical experience, and the process can be automated to replicate ghost stores at volume.

Consumers can verify an Australian business through the Australian Business Register and search the business name alongside the word "scam" before buying. Brands can file takedown requests with the web host or domain registrar, though offshore operators are often hard to identify or locate.

AUSTRALIAN NEWS

• Cotality reported that capital city home prices have fallen about 1% in the past month as tax changes, rising interest rates and weak confidence deter buyers, dragging Sydney’s average value down about $93,000 since February. LINK

• Australian household consumption is weakening as retail trade volumes rose 0.4% over 3 months to June while industry gross profits fell 5.2% and RBA data showed slowing housing and personal credit growth. AFR

• The federal government has launched consultations with traders and landlords to simplify commercial tenancy and retail leasing rules, including rent reviews and dispute resolution, to help small businesses expand. LINK 

• Australia will need 259,000 additional tech workers by 2035 as demand outpaces broader employment growth, requiring an expanded talent pipeline. AUS

• Health experts have warned that proposed 75-80% cuts to Australia’s tobacco excise to combat a booming illicit market lack evidence they will curb organised crime or reduce illegal trade. LINK 

• APRA has reported that Australia’s total superannuation assets rose 6.6% over the quarter to $4.8T as contributions climbed 12.8% to $236.3B and benefit payments increased. CB

• The government has more than tripled foreign student visa application fees to $2,500, helping make visa charges the budget’s fastest-growing tax revenue source at over $6B this year. AFR

RETAIL PROFITS FELL 5.2% AS HOUSEHOLD BORROWING SLOWED TO 0.5%

Retailers' gross profits dropped 5.2% in the three months to June 2026, the sharpest quarterly fall since March 2024, while retail trade volumes edged up just 0.4% over the June quarter even as recent ABS household spending data showed consumption growing at its fastest annual pace in at least 3 years on surging discretionary purchases. New credit growth slowed to 0.5% for housing and 0.3% for personal loans as Australians borrowed less across mortgages, credit cards and personal debt.

Questions over the household spending measure have mounted since the ABS stopped its retail trade survey in June 2025, replacing it with card transaction data. MST Marquee warned last week there was "a risk sales growth is overstated" in the new metric. In February, Coles CEO Leah Weckert told analysts she preferred to rely on competitors' earnings results rather than ABS data to gauge market share, calling the available liquor data "quite poor these days." The slide follows warnings throughout the August earnings season from JB Hi-Fi, Bapcor and Harvey Norman that economic headwinds were depressing demand.

The retail data lands ahead of June quarter GDP on Wednesday, which will show the early impact of 3 RBA rate rises and federal budget tax changes. Consumption is a critical component of overall growth, meaning weaker-than-expected household spending could cause GDP to undershoot forecasts.

COMPANY NEWS

• Qantas ground staff represented by the TWU have voted 97% in favour of protected industrial action over pay, job security and safety after months of stalled enterprise agreement talks. LINK

• Thousands of University of Sydney staff will strike for 24 hours on Wednesday as enterprise agreement talks stall over artificial intelligence use and job security concerns. LINK 

• Australia Post has warned its standard letter stamp could eventually rise from $1.85 to $2 as mail volumes slump 15% and its letters business increasingly loses money. LINK

• Star Entertainment reported a $307.3M full-year loss as falling gambling revenue, hefty one-off costs and regulatory fines deepen its financial crisis and prompt auditor survival warnings. LINK

• CBA’s x15ventures has launched a new payment platform as it positions itself as the last major bank still actively backing startups by prioritising bank-integrated products over traditional CVC. CB 

• Eucalyptus has retired its Pilot brand in Australia and is rebranding as Hims after its more than $1.6B acquisition by Hims & Hers Health, aiming to build a broader men’s digital health platform. LINK

• AustralianSuper has agreed to settle with ASIC and admit breaching financial services laws over delayed death benefit payments, with agreed facts to be lodged with the Federal Court. AFR

• The FTC and 22 US states have sued Amazon alleging it secretly raised minimum auction prices for product ads, inflating advertiser costs by over US$20B to boost profits. LINK

• OpenAI has said its ChatGPT Ads advertising business has reached a US$1B annualised revenue run rate as adoption rises and global expansion continues ahead of a potential IPO. LINK

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CHART OF THE DAY

Smartphones drive gaming uptake worldwide

ONE MORE SCROLL

Editor’s Pick: Australian researchers have found the thylacine’s bite was unlike any living meat-eater’s, built for snapping up bandicoots rather than the sheep it was blamed for killing.

Draft Pick: Scott Pendlebury’s Collingwood career ended without a farewell on Friday night, because his move to Gold Coast was not announced until the next day.

Doctor’s Pick: Updated US guidelines put CGRP drugs first for preventing migraines, cutting attacks for up to 70% of users, though doctors cannot predict which will work.

TRIVIA

What are the 9 countries that border Germany?

Answers below

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ANSWERS

The countries that border Germany are Denmark, Poland, the Czech Republic, Austria, Switzerland, France, Luxembourg, Belgium, and the Netherlands

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