Good Morning, Builders.

Today, we look at labor lawsuits, platform compromises, strategic pivots, and regulators putting their foot down. Let’s get to work.

New York’s attorney general is suing UPS, claiming the shipping giant shorted tens of thousands of seasonal workers about $45 million over the past six years by forcing off-the-clock work and deducting lunch breaks that never happened. The lawsuit targets driver helpers and seasonal drivers who use their own cars during the holiday rush, arguing the pay practices were routine and not accidental. UPS says it pays industry-leading wages and denies wrongdoing, but the case highlights a familiar holiday paradox: packages move faster than ever, while the workers moving them may still be waiting on their full paycheck. (NBC New York)

A Reuters investigation found that Meta knowingly tolerated large volumes of scam ads from China because cracking down too hard would hurt revenue. Internal documents show nearly 20% of Meta’s China ad sales, roughly $3 billion, came from fraud, illegal gambling, and banned products, yet enforcement efforts were scaled back after leadership worried about the revenue hit. A brief crackdown cut the problem in half, then got paused, teams were disbanded, and the scams came roaring back. The result is a system where fraudulent ads often stay live long enough to do damage, while Meta collects billions and frames the tradeoff as a cost of doing business. (Reuters)

Ford is repurposing battery capacity originally meant for large electric vehicles into a new battery storage business aimed at data centers and the electric grid. Instead of shelving the batteries, Ford plans to ship LFP-based storage systems starting in 2027 and scale up to 20GWh of annual capacity. The main customers will be commercial grid operators, with data centers close behind, as Ford joins Tesla and GM in betting that energy storage could be a steadier business than big EVs right now. (TechCrunch)

YouTube is smoothing out the sponsored content process by giving brands direct, creator-approved access to performance data on paid partnerships. The platform is rebranding its brand-initiated video linking as “Brand Partner Access”, letting brands see full video metrics and even run creator videos as ads without chasing screenshots or manual reports. It’s not a radical shift, but it lowers friction, adds transparency, and nudges YouTube closer to a marketplace where creator-brand deals feel more like standard media buys than bespoke influencer negotiations. (Social Media Today)

Europe is officially done waving through ultra-cheap online orders. EU finance ministers agreed to kill the €150 duty-free loophole on non-EU parcels, a move aimed squarely at Chinese e-commerce giants like Shein and Temu that ship billions of low-cost packages into the bloc. Starting as early as 2026, customs duties and VAT would apply from the first euro, ending a system officials say has been gamed for years. With 4.6 billion parcels entering the EU last year and more than 90% coming from China, Brussels is signaling that the era of frictionless fast fashion imports is coming to an end. (Yahoo Finance)

One of the easiest ways to overspend abroad has nothing to do with flights or hotels. It’s the small stuff. Every coffee, cab ride, or dinner tab picks up an extra fee just for being overseas. The simple workaround is boring but effective: use a card that doesn’t charge foreign transaction fees. Cards like Capital One SavorOne fall into that category, which means what you pay abroad is what the price actually is. And the bonus is that there’s no annual fee to justify. Since most travel spending happens on food, groceries, and entertainment anyway, the cash back adds up naturally. It’s the kind of setup that makes traveling feel a little less expensive. (Capital One)

To the Arena,
- Founders Daily Brief Team

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