NEW YORK (CNNMoney) — China has accused Wal-Mart, the world’s largest retailer, and its French competitor Carrefour of price gouging and misleading consumers by advertising false discounts on goods sold in their stores.

The National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), the Chinese agency that coordinates economic and social development, made those charges in a statement posted on its website on Wednesday.

WASHINGTON (CNN) — A federal appeals court has certified the largest class-action employment lawsuit in U.S. history, in a long-standing dispute against retailer Wal-Mart Stores Inc. over alleged gender bias in pay and promotions.

The divided 6-5 ruling by the San Francisco-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Monday allows the combined, multiparty litigation to move ahead to trial, where a decision against the company could result in billions in damages. The Arkansas chain of stores has the option of appealing Monday’s ruling to the U.S. Supreme Court for review.

DETROIT – Many assembly line autoworkers reacted with skepticism and anger Monday to the Obama administration’s tough tactics, which stoked long-simmering feelings that the people who put the country on wheels get treated differently than the wizards of Wall Street.

“It’s the age-old Wall Street vs. Main Street smackdown again,” said Brian Fredline, president of UAW Local 602 at a plant near Lansing. “You have all kinds of funding available to banks that are apparently too big to fail, but they’re also too big to be responsible.”

“But when it comes to auto manufacturing and middle-class jobs and people that don’t matter on Wall Street, there are certainly different standards that we have to meet — higher standards — than the financials. That is a double standard that exists and it’s unfair,” Fredline said.