Business week in pictures

Britain is facing isolation in Europe after David Cameron vetoed a revision of the Lisbon treaty, prompting a majority of EU members to agree to draw up their own deal outside the architecture of the union. In one of the most significant developments in Britain's 38-year membership of the EU, the British prime minister said he could not allow a 'treaty within a treaty' that would undermine the UK's position in the single market Photograph: PA

European Union leaders agreed on a new 'fiscal compact' to tackle the eurozone's debt crisis. Here are the main points of the agreement, reached in the small hours of Friday after overnight talks Photograph: Chesnot/Sipa/Rex Features

Guardian economics editor Larry Elliott's instant reaction on Friday morning was that the market's tentative response spoke volumes. 'Nobody is really sure whether the deal thrashed out overnight in Brussels is really the big breakthrough hoped for,' he said. 'It doesn't look like it, at least not yet' Photograph: Stephan Hoeck/Getty Images/Stock4B Creative

Earlier in the week, Italy's new government agreed on an emergency austerity plan aimed at calming the debt crisis before it slides out of control. Outlining the reforms during a news conference, welfare minister Elsa Fornero broke into tears while speaking about the sacrifices asked of pensioners
Photograph: AGF/Rex Features

Aviva's sponsorship of ITV's hit drama Downton Abbey strays too close to advertising, rules Ofcom. Under the media regulator's rules, programme sponsorship is treated separately to TV commercials and must not "contain advertising messages or calls to action", but Ofcom said the sponsorship credit 'amounted to an advertising message', which therefore broke broadcasting code rules Photograph: Nick Briggs

HSBC has been hit with a record £10.5m fine for selling unsuitable products to almost 2,500 elderly customers. The bank's NHFA subsidiary is also expecting to pay £29.3m in compensation for the way it advised elderly customers, who had an average age of 83, to buy investment bonds that were used to help them pay for their long-term care Photograph: Luke Macgregor/Reuters

Cinema group Cineworld edged higher after Evolution Securities issued a buy note on the business, based on the future prospects for 3D films. Evolution analyst Nigel Parson said the 3D genre - where cinemas charge a premium for tickets - had been starting to flag, until this weekend's strong opening of Martin Scorsese's Hugo, pictured. Photograph: PR

The Indian government has suspended its decision to allow international supermarkets to invest in India's £300bn retail market in the face of political opposition. Finance minister Pranab Mukherjee, pictured, was reported on Monday to have told leaders of both rightwing and communist opposition parties that the government would postpone the move to allow global companies such as Walmart, Tesco and Carrefour into India until more people were convinced of its merits Photograph: India Today Group/Getty Images

Google's chairman, Eric Schmidt, has met Europe's competition commissioner amid signs that the search giant will be accused of abusing its dominant position in the market. If found guilty, Google could face fines of 10% of its annual turnover in the region, or oversight of how it runs its online search and advertising businesses in Europe Photograph: Antoine Antoniol/Getty Images

Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou, the colourful founder of easyJet, is preparing to launch a new low-cost airline in Africa. He said the new venture would bring no-frills air travels to the "final frontier" of the cheap and cheerful aviation revolution he spearheaded. The Greek-Cypriot entrepreneur will take a 5% initial stake in Rubicon, a London-based investment vehicle planning to launch an airline under his Fastjet brand Photograph: Graeme Robertson for the Guardian

Warm autumn weather and nervousness about the state of the economy combined to create a tough environment for shops and stores, the British Retail Consortium said in its monthly survey with consultancy KPMG. The value of sales in November was 0.7% higher than in the same month in 2010, but there was an annual drop of 1.6% in so-called like-for-like sales. Over the three months to November – a better guide to the underlying trend – sales were up 1.7% overall, but fell by 0.6% on a like-for-like basis Photograph: Jeff Blackler /Rex Features

BP alleged that US oil services firm Halliburton intentionally destroyed evidence relating to last year's Gulf of Mexico oil spill. The evidence related to possible problems with its cement slurry poured into the deep-sea Macondo well about 100 miles (160 km) off the Louisiana coast. Also in the documents filed in a New Orleans federal court, BP accused Halliburton of failing to produce incriminating computer modelling evidence. Halliburton has told media outlets the accusations are untrue Photograph: Reuters

An independent panel has issued a damning report into the £1.1bn accounting scandal at Japan's Olympus, urging legal action against executives behind the cover-up and the replacement of others who knew about it. 'The core part of management was rotten and the parts around it were also contaminated by the rot,' the 178-page report said Photograph: Koji Sasahara/AP

The Mr Men and Little Miss brands are to join Hello Kitty, the latter's Japanese owner Sanrio has confirmed. After completing the purchase on Tuesday from UK company Chorion, which is being broken up, Sanrio said it was launching a UK-based subsidiary with the aim of making more international acquisitions Photograph: PA

Airline bosses denounced the government's consultation on air passenger duty as a 'sham' after the Treasury stood firm against travel industry demands to reform the tax. The Treasury confirmed that the tax, due to rise by 8% in 2012, would continue to be collected as before, with no concessions to airline representations to create new bands that would lower the duty on premium economy customers and those flying to destinations such as the US or the Caribbean Photograph: Dan Kitwood/Getty Images

Transport group Stagecoach is investing £44m in a fleet of new double-decker coaches for its Megabus operation in North America. Chief executive Brian Souter said: 'The tough economy and rising fuel prices are having a real impact on household living standards and people are looking for ways to save money. Many of the people we are attracting … used to travel by car, so the switch to greener coach travel is better for the planet' Photograph: Justin Kase/Alamy

Christmas shoppers are being warned that a wave of counterfeit goods is flooding the market just in time for the festive season, according to the government's UK Border Agency. Toys, fake Ugg Boots, GHD hair straighteners, iPhones and iPads are among tens of thousands of counterfeit items that have been seized by customs officers in recent months Photograph: Daniel Lewis/Alamy

Sainsbury's is preparing for the Christmas sales war – and the ammo is 5m mince pies. The supermarket uses hi-tech logistics at its depot – a vast hangar the size of 30 football pitches – in Waltham Abbey, Essex, which has four miles of conveyor belt, 1,233 staff and a sophisticated computerised stock-control system Photograph: David Levene for the Guardian