It’s been a big week in ad tech; tech giants faced regulators, media firms scaled up, while AI hit new speeds. In today’s Madtech Daily, we cover Google facing a USD$425m privacy payout and a USD$381m fine in France over consumer failures, Europe backing a US-EU data deal as well as Amazon finalising its Axio acquisition. 

Google avoids a major breakup as a US court rejects the DOJ’s bid to split off Chrome and Android, calling the proposal an overreach. The ruling comes after last year’s antitrust verdict and marks a major win for the search giant.

Meanwhile, Disney finds itself paying the price for kids’ privacy lapses. The company will pay USD$10m (£7.4m) to settle an FTC lawsuit over children’s privacy violations. The case centred on Disney’s failure to mark certain YouTube videos as “made for kids”, allowing targeted ads in breach of the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act.

While Disney faces regulatory pressure, media consolidation is accelerating. Empower Media has acquired performance agency Ocean Media, creating the Empower Ocean Media Group. With USD$1.5bn (£1.14bn) in billings and 400 staff, the combined business becomes North America’s second-largest independent media shop.

On the other side of the globe, China is tightening controls on AI content. Platforms such as WeChat and Douyin now require all AI-generated material to be clearly labelled, a move designed to combat misinformation and ensure transparency.

Meanwhile, Microsoft is making a major play in AI innovation, launching its first in-house models. The debut includes MAI-Voice-1, a speech system capable of generating one minute of audio in less than a second on a single GPU. 

And as AI advances, age-related safety rules dominate policy debates. Australia will enforce a social media ban for under-16s from December, requiring platforms to block new sign-ups and deactivate existing accounts. Those that fail could face fines of up to AUD$50m (£24.1m).