Advertising, media, and consumer brands face a rapidly shifting legal landscape driven by emerging technology, data protection, and global regulatory responses. In the UK, after extensive consultation, the government is considering broad reforms to copyright law to address the use of protected material for Artificial Intelligence model training. Options on the table range from maintaining current law to complex ´opt-in´ and ´opt-out´ mechanisms, with major stakeholders like rights holders and Artificial Intelligence companies at odds over feasible solutions. Meanwhile, courts have handed down impactful rulings on trademark protection, such as the Thatchers cider packaging case, and declined to alter commercial agents’ legal protections, leaving established frameworks in place for those representing goods.
The UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has implemented significant organizational changes prompted by the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act, including strategic market status designations for digital giants, stricter oversight of merger remedies, and a heightened drive to curb fake online reviews. Parallel regulatory attention is focused on advertising restrictions for high-fat, salt, or sugar (HFSS) products, which will soon restrict marketing aimed at children both online and on television, with voluntary compliance from leading advertisers preceding formal enforcement. New rules governing marketing of automated vehicles, updates to address modern slavery and supply chain transparency, and evolving guidance on reputation management using data protection further intensify compliance challenges for brands in the UK and EU.
Across the European Union, concepts such as ´AI-washing´—misleading consumers with exaggerated Artificial Intelligence claims—are under increasing scrutiny as regulators reference the new EU Artificial Intelligence Act. Landmark cases, like Germany’s Hamburg District Court ruling on copyright use for Artificial Intelligence training, signal that foundational questions about intellectual property and technology are now filtering into courtrooms. The EU’s new packaging regulations are also redefining intellectual property and sustainability standards, impacting nearly all consumer brands. In the United States, the copyright office clarified that only works with meaningful human input qualify for protection, and courts found that using copyrighted material for Artificial Intelligence model training is not fair use. Additional regulatory action spans children’s online privacy, negative option marketing contracts, and broad restrictions on data transfers to certain countries. In Asia-Pacific, authorities are refining data protection and Artificial Intelligence frameworks, with milestone cases in China and new Australian privacy laws reshaping cross-border compliance. By synthesizing trends across regions, this comprehensive briefing equips advertising and consumer brand leaders to anticipate and address complex, fast-moving regulatory threats and opportunities globally.
