The 10 biggest business stories on Wednesday December 30

Barclays fined $13.75m by US regulators over mutual funds; Tesco is to trial pet grooming services; Spotify has been hit with a class action lawsuit

Barclays will pay more than $13.75 million including more than $10 million in restitution and a $3.75 million fine to settle US regulatory charges (Getty)

1. A federal judge has certified two shareholder class action lawsuits accusing Facebook of hiding concerns about its growth forecasts prior to the social media company's initial public offering in May 2012.

2. Barclays will pay more than $13.75 million including more than $10 million in restitution and a $3.75 million fine to settle US regulatory charges that it let retail brokerage customers make unsuitable mutual fund transactions over a five-year period.

3. Carolyn Fairbairn, director general of the Confederation of British industry (CBI), urged the government not to let short-term politics take over the opportunity for a more prosperous nation. She outlined her priorities for the year ahead including raising productivity, successful devolution and contributing to an informed debate on the UK’s membership of the European Union.

4. Tesco is to trial pet grooming services within its largest supermarkets in an attempt to find new ways to fill its stores, the Telegraph reports.

5. Britain is the world leader in e-commerce, former Google boss Eric Schmidt has told the BBC. Now executive chairman of Google parent company Alphabet, Mr Schmidt said there was no reason why a hundred billion pound tech start up could not be launched in Britain.

6. China's central bank has suspended at least three foreign banks from conducting some foreign exchange business until the end of March, three sources who had seen the suspension notices told Reuters on Wednesday.

7. House prices are rising in America. The Standard & Poor's/Case-Shiller 20-city home price index rose 5.5 per cent in the 12 months ending in October, up from a 5.4 per cent pace in September.

8. Russia is to revise its space program, the national space agency said on Tuesday after a newspaper published a report that billions of dollars of cuts may be afoot including too ambitious Moon exploration plans.

9. Spotify has been hit with a class action lawsuit seeking at least $150 million (£101 million) in damages. Musician David Lowery claims that Spotify hasn't paid out royalties for music.

10. Ridesharing start-up Sidecar will shut down on December 31. It was an early ridesharing pioneer but failed to compete with Uber and Lyft.