Here are the business stories making the headlines across Scotland and the UK this morning.
St Fittick’s Park campaigners lose latest legal bid to overturn council ruling
Campaigners who want to stop the potential development of a beloved city park have lost a legal bid at Scotland’s highest civil court to overturn a council ruling about the site.
The activists believe Aberdeen City Council shouldn’t allow St Fittick’s Park in Torry to be developed. They went to the Court of Session in July 2024, hoping that judge Lord Fairley would overturn a decision made by the local authority in September 2023.
The campaigners believe that councillors were wrong to give the go head for formal talks with businesses over creating an Energy Transition Zone at the green space. The scheme is seen by its supporters as a means of helping to diversify the North-east economy.
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Millions of consumers could get £70 after Mastercard ruling
Millions of shoppers could get up to £70 each after a tribunal approved a settlement in a lawsuit against Mastercard which stemmed from historic fees levied on businesses by the card provider.
The decision comes after a long-running legal case going back almost a decade, brought forward by a former financial ombudsman.
Walter Merricks argued that shoppers were charged higher prices after fees were wrongly levied on transactions made over a 15-year period between 1992 and 2008.
AI chatbot to be embedded in Google search
Google is introducing a new artificial intelligence (AI) mode that more firmly embeds chatbot capabilities into its search engine, aiming to give users the experience of having a conversation with an expert.
The "AI Mode" was made available in the US on Tuesday, appearing as an option in Google's search bar.
The change, unveiled at the company's annual developers conference in Mountain View, California, is part of the tech giant's push to remain competitive against ChatGPT and other AI services, which threaten to erode Google's dominance of online search.
Deloitte cuts back on bonuses, pay and promotions
Deloitte has told its army of accountants, consultants and technology experts in the UK that there will be fewer promotions, smaller pay rises and cuts to bonuses this year.
Richard Houston, the Big Four firm’s UK senior partner, sent an email to its 27,000 UK staff on Tuesday, cautioning that the group’s profits for the current financial year, which ends next week, were “below our original plan”, even though they were “slightly ahead” of the previous year.
In the email, first reported by the Financial Times, Houston, 57, said Deloitte’s consulting business had “faced a particularly challenging year and fell materially short of its performance goals”. The audit practice also performed worse than management had hoped for.
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