THE NEWS WRAP: German court issues nationwide ban on Uber

A German court has issued a nationwide ban on Uber which will prevent unlicensed taxi drivers from competing with licensed operators.

Should Uber continue to operate in Germany with unlicensed drivers it will face fines of more than $300,000 per violation of the law.

“We will not give up on the German market: our UberBlack and UberTaxi services remain unaffected by today’s judgment,” an Uber spokesperson told Re/code.

In Australia, unregistered UberX drivers can attract fines of up to $7500.

Facebook sued for alleged discrimination and unfair dismissal

A former Facebook employee is suing the social media giant for unfair dismissal as well as alleged sexual harassment and discrimination based on race.

Chia Hong has made 11 separate legal claims against the company after being fired in October 2013. She alleges that after she raised issues about being harassed and discriminated against the treatment became worse before her employment was terminated.

“We work extremely hard on issues related to diversity, gender and equality, and we believe we’ve made progress,” a Facebook spokesperson told TechCrunch.

“In this case we have substantive disagreements on the facts, and we believe the record shows the employee was treated fairly.”

Fantasy sports app Draft raises $3.5 million

Fantasy sports app Draft has raised $3.5 million in Series A funding in order to accelerate the startup’s growth and monetisation strategy.

The round was led by Upfront Ventures and founders Jeremy Levine and Nicolo Giorgi are now looking to grow their team from four to nine employees, according to TechCrunch.

The mobile app allows users to draft their own sporting team and play against other users for real money.

Overnight

The Dow Jones Industrial Average is up 227.11 points, rising 1.27% overnight to 18,076.19. The Aussie dollar is currently trading at around 77.80 US cents.

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