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Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes announced Tuesday that Arizona is the latest state to sue Temu and its parent company PDD Holdings Inc. over allegations that the Chinese online retailer is stealing customers data. Mayes said the app deceives customers about the quality of its low-cost products and collects what she described as a shocking amount of sensitive data without the consent of users, including GPS locations and a list of other apps on users’ phones. According to the lawsuit, prosecutors are concerned about Temu being subject to laws in China that require Chinese companies to hand over data requested by the government, and that its code is designed to evade security reviews. It can detect everywhere you go, to a doctors office, to a public library, to a political event, to your friends’ houses,” Mayes said during a news conference. So the scope of this invasion of privacy is enormous, and thats why I consider it possibly the gravest violation of the Arizona Consumer Fraud Act that we have ever seen in Arizona. Arizona’s top prosecutor also said the state wants to protect businesses from being ripped off by the online retailer, alleging the company has copied the intellectual property of brands that include the Arizona Cardinals and Arizona State University. In a statement early Wednesday, Temu denied the allegations. We help consumers and families access quality products at affordable prices, the company said. We work to keep costs down and maintain reliable supply so people can meet their needs without stretching their budgets. Attorneys general in Kentucky, Nebraska, and Arkansas have filed similar lawsuits in recent years. There have been legislative efforts at the federal level to counter Chinas influence, especially when it comes to technology and intellectual property. But Mayes suggested there should be greater intervention by the federal government to protect consumers. Mayes called the allegations against Temu more egregious than those that have been made against TikTok. Through a forensic review, investigators in Arizona found the apps code has portions recognized by experts as malware or spyware and allows exfiltration of data from a users mobile device while concealing that the app is doing so. The review also found in the app large swaths of previously banned code from the platforms precursor version. Mayes urged Arizonans to delete their Temu accounts, uninstall the app, and scan their devices for malware. Sejal Govindarao, Associated Press
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E-Commerce
Hit-Boy has made chart-topping beats for the likes of Beyoncé, Jay Z, Nas and Doechii but behind the scenes he was stuck in a restrictive publishing deal. In this interview, Hit-Boy talks But now he’s in full control of his art and his story. He’ll also dive into his creative process and how he’s walking the line of AI and art.
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E-Commerce
When it comes to the battle of the prediction markets, which player are you betting on? Fanatics, the global sports platform, is out to prove that sportsbooks will be the emerging industry’s biggest winners. Today, Fanatics is launching a stand-alone predictions market app designed to appeal to the fans who already buy its apparel and collectibles. It’s the first of the major sportsbooks to move into prediction marketsand almost certainly won’t be the last. Prediction markets are one of the top things that fans want to do these days, says Matt King, who leads betting and gaming for Fanatics. People want to be able to express their opinions on not just sports, but entertainment, culture, and everything under the sun. King, the former CEO of FanDuel, oversaw Fanatics expansion into sports betting in 2023 with a sportsbook that now operates online in 22 states and Washington D.C. With prediction markets, King sees a way to give people the ability to speculate on different asset classes, different trades, all in one place. The demographic that is core to both Fanatics and prediction marketsmen in their 20s and 30s, who likely watch sports and trade cryptoare seeking the ability to profit if theyre right, King says. Fanatics Markets will be available to users aged 21 and up in 10 states this afternoon, and an additional 14 by the end of the weekall places where Fanatics Sportsbook & Casino is currently unavailable. The trading categories featured in the app include live games, major league matchups, economic indicators, and elections. (Later releases will include crypto, pop culture, movies, and more.) Fanatics designed the apps user experience, partnering with Crypto.com to operate the derivatives exchange that powers the underlying market and its pricing. The Android app will go live first, followed by iOS. Prediction markets are an adaptation of traditional futures markets, which allow traders to buy and sell contracts associated with future events. Originally a hedging tool designed to protect farmers in the event of a poor harvest, the contracts have been repackaged as an internet-era way to bet on news. Since winning greater regulatory clarity last year, prediction markets have been growing at a breakneck pace. Weekly trading volume now extends into the billions of dollars, with a significant portion of those dollars dedicated to sports. In late October, for example, industry pioneer Kalshi posted weekly notional trading volumes of more than $1 billion in sports, making the category its most popular by far. For those arguing prediction markets are a positive because they can generate meaningful signal… volume on Kalshi is *overwhelmingly* just sports gambling: pic.twitter.com/jh1Z22DsRh— Jason Mikula (@mikulaja) December 2, 2025 Numbers like those have convinced sportsbooks to get off the sidelines. If you look at the inherent customer base, the experience that we have in this business, its super exciting for us, Fanatics CEO Michael Rubin told CNBC last month. Customers want this product, and we want to give it to the customers. GROWING COMPETITION Meaningfully, prediction markets also give Fanatics an opportunity to try to leapfrog U.S. sports betting leaders FanDuel and DraftKings, which together control roughly 80% of the market. Fanatics sports betting operation generated $300 million in revenue in 2024; its market share, while growing, is in the single digits. Structurally, prediction markets are vastly different to operate than sportsbooks, in which the operator serves as the house. But to fans, the underlying impulse is the same: putting money on a predicted outcome. While Fanatics is making the first move, FanDuel has teamed up with CME Group and has a product in the works. DraftKings says it is watching how things unfold, according to CEO Jason Robins. Stock and crypto trading platforms see prediction markets as an opportunity, too. Robinhood unveiled its prediction markets feature last fall, just in time for the presidential election. Leaked screenshots suggest that Coinbase, in pursuit of its goal of becoming an everything exchange, could unveil a prediction market offering, in partnership with Kalshi, later this month. Meanwhile, Kalshi and Polymarket are attracting significant investor interest. In October, Polymarket raised up to $2 billion in strategic capital from ICE, parent company of the New York Stock Exchange, and Kalshi followed suit with a $1 billion round on Tuesday, led by Paradigm. As Fanatics prepares to go head-to-head with existing exchanges, King says he sees Fanatics strong brand as an essential asset. We think a combination of the brand, a good product experience, and our rewards proposition means that well have a big chunk of customers that play with us, he says. But we don’t think its winner take all. We recognize it’s going to be a competitive industry. PLACING BETS, AMASSING REWARDS Fanatics has positioned itself at the center of sports fandom in recent years. In addition to selling licensed apparel, it now offers trading cards, collectibles, and memorabilia. Its live events arm produces the annual Fanatics Fest in New York City, which has become something of the Comic Con of sports. The companys Fanatics ONE rewards program, meanwhile, knits together these disparate arms, offering users rewards for betting and shopping. In the coming months, King expects to integrate Fanatics Markets with Fanatics ONE. Users might earn rewards points the more they trade, for example. You’ll also see traders, the more they trade, unlock benefits that are really only available to our best users, whether thats access to exclusive merch drops, or free tickets to Fanatics Fest, or other things like that, he says. It’s a formula weve seen work in the other categories that we operate in, and so we know there’s a huge overlap between the customer demographic, trading and prediction markets, and some of our other core businesses. Spots is emerging as a prediction markets linchpin because of the frequency and regularity of the events it comprises. Month in, month out, theres always something going on, says Travis McGhee, global head of predictions at Crypto.com. Prior to its Fanatics collaboration, Crypto.com launched sports event trading last December. The trading platform also announced a prediction markets partnership with Underdog, a fantasy and sports gaming company, in September. But even sports-first Fanatics sees potential in a broader realm of trading possibilities. Sports is the most intuitive [category] to net-new users, King says of prediction markets. But he expects to see sports fans expand their trading activity to new categories as they get more comfortable with the format. If you think about the papal election, when there were a lot of Chicagoans rooting for our man, that was incredibly popular on a relative basis, he says. And I think if that were to happen again today, it would be orders of magnitude more popular, because you have so many more users that are on these platforms and aware that they can now express an opinion. Sports leagues have their offseasons. But if Fanatics has its way, there will always be a reason for fans to log on and put money down.
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E-Commerce
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