New UK rules barring TV ads for less healthy food and drink products before the 9pm watershed and blocking them entirely online came into force at the start of 2026, already trimming around £20 million from ITV's first-half revenues, and the industry is now bracing for a further blow as the government considers updating the nutrient profiling model used to classify products from the 2004 version to a stricter 2018 version, which would bring a significantly wider range of products within scope of the ban. Research from Oxford Economics commissioned by the Advertising Association estimates that under the current rules, between £450 million and £600 million of food and drink advertising would have been restricted in 2025, rising by a further £300 to £400 million if the 2018 model had applied, with between £80 million and £100 million of that additional spend likely lost to the UK ad ecosystem entirely rather than redirected. Industry groups are calling on the government to first assess whether the current measures are delivering their intended public health objectives before extending the restrictions further, warning that brands and agencies have already invested significant effort in adapting to the existing rules and that changing the classification model mid-course would cause further unnecessary disruption.

A US federal judge rejected on 2 September the DOJ's request to force Google to divest its ad-tech business, limiting remedies to behavioural measures including mandatory integration with Prebid (the open-source ad auction software widely used across the industry), a ban on self-preferencing in ad auctions, and the decoupling of Google's AdX exchange from its DoubleClick for Publishers ad server, with all provisions applying globally. Publishers are cautiously welcoming the Prebid integration as the most immediately meaningful change, but the broader reaction is one of resignation, with experts noting the ruling only covers open web display advertising and excludes CTV, video and retail media, meaning Google's structural dominance remains largely intact. The decision also weakens the European Commission's hand, which had reportedly been hoping for a common transatlantic outcome to support its own push for structural remedies following its €2.95 billion ad-tech fine against Google in 2025.

The European Commission published the KIDS Act on 17 September, introducing an EU-wide ban on social media for under-13s, a minimum age of 15 for an autonomous account, and sweeping "safe by design" obligations covering social media, video-sharing platforms, online games and AI chatbots, including bans on infinite scrolling, addictive recommender systems and unwanted contact, with mandatory age verification and a reversal of the burden of proof requiring platforms to proactively demonstrate their design is safe. The proposal intersects with several other EU files: it directly claims the addictive-design ground previously expected to fall to the Digital Fairness Act, which remains in the pipeline with a broader focus on adult users and dark patterns, while the Commission also commits to a parallel AVMSD revision to define harmful-content categories and clarify that AVMSD rules apply to influencers. On the Parliament side, the file is expected to be attributed to the IMCO committee, though LIBE has reportedly contested the sole attribution and is pushing for a shared lead, with the Conference of Committee Chairs yet to take a final decision.

The European Parliament's LIBE and ITRE committees published nearly 1,800 amendments on the Digital Omnibus data provisions, with the full set finally published by end of August, revealing deep divisions across political groups on the most contested issues, notably centralised consent management, cookie walls, and the conditions under which AI models may be trained on personal data. On consent, the EPP is internally split, with rapporteur Aura Salla backing centralised consent and cookie walls while other EPP members prefer a voluntary system, whereas Renew supports centralised consent via an interoperable signal and S&D favours a binding, restrictive approach prioritising contextual advertising and prohibiting cookie walls. EPP, Renew and S&D all back a media exemption from centralised consent requirements, a point of rare cross-party convergence in an otherwise heavily contested file. On the Council side, a new compromise text should be published in the coming days, the goal being to finalise their position by the end of October.

Meta reached a $18 billion settlement with 29 US states on 26 August, committing to introduce daily screen time limits, night time app closures, hidden likes and a ban on cosmetic filters for minors on Facebook and Instagram, while conditioning 30% of the payout on TikTok and YouTube adopting equivalent measures. The deal prompted immediate reactions in Europe, with former Commissioner Thierry Breton noting that nine of the twelve commitments are already embedded in the DSA, renewing calls for the Commission to accelerate enforcement rather than wait for new legislation. The verdict adds further pressure ahead of von der Leyen's expected September announcement on an EU-wide digital age of majority, with France and the UK also calling on Meta to extend the same protections to their users.

Ireland assumed the rotating Presidency of the EU Council on 1 July 2026 under the theme "Strength with Unity", with a digital agenda that places online safety, AI and cloud policy, and media regulation at its core. On audiovisual and tech files specifically, the Presidency has signalled it is ready to open negotiations on the AVMSD revision should the Commission publish its proposal before year-end (highly likely), will advance early technical discussions on the Digital Fairness Act ahead of the Commission's expected Q4 2026 proposal, and will host an international AI Summit on 14 October. Ireland is also making child online safety a flagship priority, seeking an EU-level decision on a digital age of majority and advancing robust age verification mechanisms, a focus that sits alongside its broader push to complete the Digital Omnibus package and strengthen enforcement of the DSA, DMA and AI Act.

The EU Court of Justice on 2 July dismissed Google's appeal and upheld the €4.1 billion fine originally imposed by the European Commission in 2018 for anticompetitive practices related to the Android operating system, in particular the use of pre-installation agreements with phone makers to give an unfair advantage to Google's search engine and Chrome browser. The fine had already been marginally reduced from €4.3 billion to €4.1 billion by the General Court in 2022, but the Court of Justice confirmed the penalty in full, rejecting Google's argument that Android had created more choice rather than less. The ruling adds to a growing body of EU enforcement actions against Google, which was also fined €2.95 billion in 2025 for distorting competition in the advertising technology market, with a separate DMA fine still pending amid ongoing political controversy over alleged interference by Commission President von der Leyen.

The UK government confirmed on 15 June that it plans to ban under-16s from accessing social media platforms, with the changes expected to come into force in Spring 2027, affecting major platforms including TikTok, Instagram, Snapchat, YouTube, Facebook and X. The Guardian reported that the ban could lead to a £1.3bn drop in UK digital advertising spend in 2027, as platforms lose access to a major youth audience segment, potentially driving advertisers toward streaming, contextual advertising and other compliant environments. Enforcement responsibility sits entirely with the platforms, with Ofcom overseeing age-verification requirements, while critics warn that removing millions of under-16 users from advertising inventory will reduce available impressions and likely drive up costs for all advertisers across the board.

On 16 June, the Court of Justice issued a Grand Chamber judgment which, while concerning age-verification for pornographic websites and police-check alert services, carries broader implications for platform regulation on two fronts: it confirms that the country-of-origin principle is not an absolute shield, and that member states may intervene where significant public interest concerns arise and the home state has not acted. In addition, the Court found that providers using algorithms to determine the visibility, prioritisation and presentation of content are exercising control over it and cannot benefit from the hosting liability safe harbour under the E-commerce directive, challenging the traditional regulatory distinction between editorial media services and supposedly neutral platforms. The ruling could inform future discussions on platform accountability, particularly around whether regulatory obligations should reflect not only who creates content but also who determines its visibility, reach and monetisation.

On 10 June, the European Commission published the final voluntary Code of Practice on the marking and labelling of AI-generated content, drafted by six independent experts with input from over 180 stakeholders, to help providers and deployers of generative AI systems prepare for the AI Act's transparency obligations entering into application on 2 August 2026. The Code is a voluntary, industry-facing instrument through which signatories can demonstrate compliance: it covers the technical marking and detection of AI-generated content by providers, as well as the labelling of deepfakes. This Code does not clarify the definitions of deepfakes and creative works, which are left to the Commission's binding guidelines, whose draft has already drawn significant industry pushback.

The Council has dropped a proposed exemption in their Digital Omnibus draft compromise text that would have allowed contextual advertising measurement without user consent. If such a change remains, it would remove one of the more business-friendly elements industry had hoped to see in the reform, at the very least. This approach leans towards a uniform text rather than a risk-based regulation, as contextual advertising does not track users across sites and should not be treated identically to behavioural profiling.

On 3 June, the EU General Court partially annulled the European Commission's 2023 decision designating Meta as a gatekeeper under the Digital Markets Act, upholding the designation of Messenger as a distinct and important gateway for businesses but annulling the designation of Marketplace on the grounds that the Commission had failed to sufficiently account for rule changes Meta had introduced before the designation that caused the number of business users to fall below the relevant thresholds. The practical impact of the ruling is limited, as the Commission had already removed Marketplace from its list of designated services in spring 2025 after it fell below the required user thresholds. Still, the judgment provides important guidance on the standard of justification required for future gatekeeper designations.

Reports alleging that Commission President von der Leyen personally intervened to block a billion euro DMA fine against Google that had been ready for announcement since March have sparked significant controversy, with the Commission denying any political interference and insisting that technical negotiations over reforms to Google's search engine are still ongoing. Over 34 civil society organisations signed an open letter on 5th May calling on von der Leyen to enforce the DMA without delay, while the European Parliament passed a resolution warning against external political pressure weakening the law's enforcement.

Ireland's Data Protection Commission (DPC) fined Google €403 million following a six-year investigation, launched in February 2020 on foot of complaints from European consumer groups including BEUC, into how the company tracked and stored users' location data across three features: Web & App Activity, Location History and Location Accuracy. The DPC found multiple GDPR breaches, including unlawful and unfair processing of location data, failures in transparency obligations, and retention of location data for longer than necessary. Users may have been unaware their location was being used to target them with ads or infer their interests, leading to a loss of control over their personal data. Alongside the fine, Google has been ordered to bring its data processing practices into compliance within six months, adding yet another penalty to a growing list of GDPR, antitrust and advertising fines against the company.

Adopted by the CULT Committee on 14 July and published on 17 September alongside the KIDS Act, the Ruotolo report calls for privacy-by-design, safety-by-default and algorithmic transparency obligations targeting persuasive design practices such as infinite scroll, autoplay and personalised recommendation systems, with MEPs pushing for bans on the most harmful features and an explicit prohibition on non-consensual deepfake sexual content and synthetic child sexual abuse material. MEPs also stress the need for better enforcement of existing rules rather than just new legislation, and frame the upcoming AVMSD revision as a key opportunity to strengthen protection of minors on video-sharing platforms. Notably, the report calls on the Commission to clarify whether influencers and professional content creators fall under the AVMSD and to hold them to the same advertising-transparency obligations as media service providers, directly feeding into the broader debate on levelling the regulatory playing field between broadcasters and platforms.

The AVMSD revision is still on track for a November/December proposal, though the impact assessment suffered a setback after the Regulatory Scrutiny Board issued a negative opinion in July, forcing the Commission to resubmit its answers. They will face a second RSB hearing in mid-to-late September. In parallel, the Commission's study team has been actively consulting industry stakeholders on the costs and benefits of proposed amendments, with a data request to private broadcasters due by today and a dedicated online validation session scheduled for 4 September.

Meanwhile, the Media Board published its own recommendations on 30 July, calling for influencers, radio and podcasts to be brought into the directive's scope, advertising obligations to be extended to video-sharing platforms and VOD services, and prominence rules for general interest services to be strengthened.

Separately, the Commission has launched a gold-plating survey under DG GROW (and thus in theory disconnected from DG CNECT’s revision endeavour), open until 15 September, inviting businesses including those in the media and creative industries to flag cases where national rules go beyond EU requirements and create unnecessary burdens, with egta intending to submit a consolidated response on behalf of its members.

Polish Deputy Prime Minister Krzysztof Gawkowski formally wrote to EU tech chief Henna Virkkunen on 26 August asking the Commission to fine Meta €250 million and open a DSA investigation into Facebook and Instagram over their failure to remove fraudulent advertisements, citing evidence that only 13% of ads flagged by Polish cybersecurity teams were taken down, while a BEUC complaint found removal rates of just 27% across Meta, Google and TikTok in 13 countries. The Commission confirmed it is already investigating Meta on this issue, but has yet to open investigations specific to financial scams or impose any DSA fines on social media companies, despite the tools to do so being available as the DSA became fully applicable in 2024.

Commission President von der Leyen confirmed on 3 July, during her visit to Cork for the inauguration of Ireland's Council Presidency, that a legislative proposal to restrict minors' access to social media is expected in September, describing the measure as an age-based delay on access rather than an outright ban. The proposal will be informed by the conclusions of the Commission's expert group on children's online safety, due to deliver its report on 13 July and expected to provide a comprehensive framework for age-differentiated access thresholds, with the formal announcement widely anticipated at von der Leyen's State of the Union address. Taoiseach Micheál Martin warmly welcomed the initiative and pledged that the Irish Presidency will work with the Commission to advance it, seeing it as a potential flagship achievement for Ireland's six-month term and a direct expression of Dublin's stated priority of securing an EU-level decision on a digital age of majority.

Comcast's Sky has agreed to buy the broadcast channels and streaming service of Britain's ITV for up to £1.6 billion, creating a British champion with the scale to compete with global players like Netflix, Amazon and Disney, in what Sky CEO Dana Strong described as a "defining moment" and one of the biggest deals in the history of British broadcasting. The transaction will leave ITV as a stand-alone production business while the combined Sky and ITV broadcasting arm would account for more than 70% of the UK television advertising market, with the newly merged entity committing to spend a minimum of £2.1 billion on content between 2028 and 2032. The deal, expected to close in the second half of 2027, will now face scrutiny from regulators and lawmakers, and reflects the growing pressure on traditional broadcasters to consolidate in the face of competition from platforms like YouTube.

The Commission's Regulatory Scrutiny Board issued a negative opinion on the impact assessment underpinning the planned revision of the Audiovisual Media Services Directive following a hearing on 1 July. The Commission must now rework and resubmit its assessment before the revision can proceed to the next stage, representing a procedural setback. At the same hearing, the Board issued a more favourable "positive with reservations" opinion on the Digital Fairness Act, meaning key weaknesses must be addressed before it moves forward, with the Commission still expected to present it as part of a broader consumer protection package in Q4 2026. The Commission has declined to comment on either opinion, and the specific concerns raised by the Board remain undisclosed, though in the case of the Digital Fairness Act it is understood that comments centred primarily on the Commission's assessment of the cost of the envisaged measures for businesses.

Ireland takes over the Council Presidency on 1 July 2026 with a digital agenda centred on simplification, AI and cloud policy, platform regulation and online safety, including a commitment to completing the Digital Omnibus package by end-2026 and hosting an AI Summit on 14 October. Key files to be progressed include the Digital Networks Act and the Cloud and AI Development Act, alongside continued implementation of the Digital Services Act and advancing discussions on child online safety and a potential AVMSD revision. The broader Ireland-Lithuania-Greece trio programme, covering July 2026 to December 2027, complements these priorities with a focus on shaping global digital standards notably on AI, tackling disinformation, addressing online harms and strengthening the protection of children online.

On 17 June, egta and seven other European media and broadcasting associations sent a joint letter to Executive Vice-President Virkkunen raising serious concerns about the Commission's draft guidelines on AI Act transparency obligations, warning that, as currently drafted, they would generate excessive over-labelling across professional media content and create disproportionate technical and operational burdens. Our core concern is that the overly broad definition of deepfakes extends far beyond the scope intended by Article 50 of the AI Act by capturing clearly fictitious or non-deceptive content, while the guidelines' reading of timing rules as creating a continuous labelling obligation has no basis in the law. We are calling on the Commission to narrow the deepfake definition, clarify the timing rules, and ensure standards are technically workable before the obligations enter into application on 2 August.

In an open letter from 3 June, 15 major industry federations from 13 EU member states, including Germany's BDI, France's MEDEF, Italy's Confindustria and Spain's CEOE, urged Council members to resist the Cypriot Presidency's push to rush and finalise a political agreement on the Digital Omnibus before 1 July, warning that the current compromise text risks diluting the Commission's original proposal to the point where it no longer delivers meaningful simplification and may instead add complexity on contested issues such as cookie management. With the European Parliament not expected to adopt its negotiating position before early 2027, the signatories argue there is neither urgency nor justification for rushing, and point to the troubled implementation of the Data Act and the AI Act as cautionary examples.

A group of over 20 European media companies has filed a collective lawsuit against Google at the Amsterdam court, seeking €640 million in damages for alleged anticompetitive practices in the online advertising market. The lawsuit, financed by Czech litigation funder LitFin, builds directly on the €2.95 billion fine the European Commission imposed on Google in September 2025 for abusing its dominance in advertising technology, with publishers arguing they lost significant revenue and paid inflated costs as a result. The case adds further legal pressure on Google at a sensitive moment, as controversy continues to swirl over reports that Commission President von der Leyen separately blocked a DMA fine against the company, raising broader questions about the consistency and independence of EU enforcement.

The European Commission has published the conclusions of its 4 May implementation dialogue on the Audiovisual Media Services Directive (AVMSD), chaired by Executive Vice-President Henna Virkkunen, in which stakeholders broadly agreed the directive has supported the internal media market, cultural diversity and viewer protection, while calling for simpler and more modern rules. Key priorities emerging from the discussion include ensuring fairer competition between traditional broadcasters and video-sharing platforms, updating advertising rules, clarifying obligations for influencers, supporting European works, and improving alignment with the Digital Services Act. The outcomes of the dialogue will feed into the ongoing AVMSD review, which will go to the Regulatory Scrutiny Board on 1st July.