All Marketing knowledge

Germany's statutory health insurers are among the country's biggest advertisers — but a funding reform and a public 'premiums, not posters' backlash are forcing a reckoning that will ripple through the ad industry.

A landmark suit alleges Amazon quietly tilted its ad auctions with hidden surcharges — overcharging ~1.2 million advertisers by around $20 billion. Trust in retail-media auctions is now the story.

The Deutscher Werberat's half-year report logged 836 complaints — nearly triple a year earlier — with gender discrimination still the leading issue.

France's per-garment penalty on ultra-fast fashion takes effect on 1 September 2026, explicitly targeting Shein, Temu and AliExpress.

The FTC has finalised orders against Cox Media Group and two partners over a deceptively marketed 'Active Listening' AI ad product, totalling about $930,000.

The ASA borrows Compare the Market's meerkat for an industry-funded awareness blitz — and reveals it now vets 60 million ads a year with AI.

Meta has agreed roughly $18bn to settle US state claims that Instagram and Facebook harmed children — and default time limits for under-18s reshape teen reach for every advertiser.

The ASA has banned four social ads on testosterone testing from Numan and BioID Health, and says more are under investigation — a warning to men's-health marketers.

Germany's LFK Baden-Württemberg media authority imposed a record €36,000 fine on influencer Hanadi Diab for inadequate ad labelling in Instagram Stories — its largest ever.

France's Constitutional Council struck down the law banning social media for under-15s, and President Macron has called for a fresh, 'legally robust' text.

Meta has appealed a French competition-authority order that would force it to renegotiate its neighbouring-rights payments to French publishers — a signal fight in the ongoing battle over how platforms pay for news content.

For the first time, Apple has publicly disclosed its German profits and tax under new EU transparency rules — €209m pre-tax profit on €2.72bn revenue in Germany. A landmark moment for corporate transparency and brand reputation.

France’s DGCCRF has fined fast-fashion site Boohoo €2.33m for fake ‘reference price’ discounts — with 95% of checked promotions found non-compliant.

Bill-pay firm Doxo will pay $2.1m to settle FTC allegations it ran misleading search ads impersonating billers and charged hidden fees — a warning on paid search tactics.

The FTC has proposed an enforcement policy on personalized pricing, signalling that using consumer data to set individual prices could be unfair or deceptive — a shot across martech’s bow.

The ASA has banned a Boots ‘free No7 lotion’ newspaper promotion after a customer couldn’t redeem the voucher — a sharp reminder that ‘subject to availability’ is not a get-out-of-jail card.

The Competition and Markets Authority has opened formal 'drip pricing' investigations into three household names — its first big enforcement push under the DMCC Act, and a warning to every UK advertiser using 'from' pricing.

Germany’s Bundeskartellamt has closed its probe into Apple’s App Tracking Transparency, extracting binding commitments to align consent prompts for Apple’s own and third-party apps.

The IAB has released version 2 of its AI Transparency & Disclosure framework as state and international labeling laws multiply — and as research shows AI labels can dent performance.

Meta appealed France's order to reopen 'droits voisins' negotiations with publishers — opening a second front after Google in France's platform-payment fight.