Tuesday newspaper round-up: CBI, tech firms, Lidl

The Confederation of British Industry has admitted it failed to “filter out culturally toxic people” from its ranks, leading to “terrible consequences” including allegations of sexual harassment. The CBI president, Brian McBride, said in a letter to its members that the organisation had “made mistakes” and “badly let down” its staff, after a series of revelations in the Guardian about alleged misconduct by employees, including two women who said they were raped. – Guardian

Major tech firms face the threat of multibillion-pound fines for breaching consumer protection rules under new legislation that will tackle issues including fake online reviews and subscriptions that are difficult to cancel. The digital markets, competition and consumers bill will empower the UK’s competition watchdog to tackle the “excessive dominance” that a small number of tech firms hold over consumers and businesses.m – Guardian

Millions of people failed to receive a government emergency alert on Sunday because of a suspected software glitch on Three’s mobile network. The company is thought to have scrambled engineers to a base near Reading to resolve the problem after many customers reported that the new national emergency alert had failed to sound on their phones. – Telegraph

Lidl could take on Waitrose and Marks & Spencer in their middle-class heartlands by opening stores in some of London’s most affluent neighbourhoods. The German discount supermarket chain has published a list of 247 desired sites for new shops across Britain, with Chelsea, Kensington, Mayfair, Westminster and Knightsbridge among potential locations. It trades from more than 100 stores in London and within the M25, including Shepherd’s Bush, Tottenham Court Road, Clapham Junction and Brixton. – The Times

Gymshark feared that its growth would stall this year for the first time since it was co-founded in 2012 by Ben Francis. The Solihull-based activewear brand, which was valued at more than £1 billion when General Atlantic, the American private equity firm, acquired a 21 per cent stake in 2020, said in its accounts that its sales for the year to July were “tracking at the same level” as in 2022, when they hit £484.5 million, up 21 per cent. – The Times