X/Twitter forgets to pay millions in bonuses, a federal judge steps in

Just in time for the holiday cheer, a federal judge ruled that X/Twitter breached contracts by failing to pay millions of dollars in bonuses the social media company promised its employees.

Reuters reports the story of Mark Schobinger, Twitter's senior director of compensation before leaving Elon Musk's company in May. Mark sued X/Twitter the following month, alleging breach of contract. His problem is that before and after billionaire Musk bought Twitter last year, the company promised its employees 50% of their target bonuses for 2022 — and never made those payments.

Today, U.S. District Judge Vince Chhabria denied Twitter's motion to dismiss the case, ruling that Schobinger plausibly asserted a breach of contract claim under California law and was covered by a bonus plan.
“Once Schobinger did what Twitter asked of him, Twitter's offer to pay him a bonus in exchange became a binding contract under California law. And by allegedly refusing to pay Schobinger the promised bonus, Twitter breached that contract,” the judge wrote. The quid pro quo – it's X/Twitter – and their lawyers argued that the company only made an oral promise that was not a contract and that Texas law should govern the matter.

Meanwhile, Meta is fined in Italy

Meanwhile, Meta isn't far behind, also bringing her share of holiday scandals. Parent company Facebook and Instagram just fined in Italy for violation of a ban on the advertising of games of chance.

Meta was fined 5.85 million euros ($6.45 million) over profiles and accounts on Facebook and Instagram, as well as sponsored content promoting betting or gaming with cash prize, communications watchdog AGCOM said in a statement Friday.

Similar fines were recently planned for YouTube (2.25 million euros) and Twitch (900,000 euros).