Lawful disruption: a map to the shifting sea of new laws affecting media businesses

What makes a successful media business? Creating informative and entertaining content for your target audience is only one piece of the puzzle. Now, perhaps more than ever, you must also decide how to adapt as a wave of new law comes into force over the coming months. Understanding the practical implications of your new lawful obligations is essential to protect revenues as well as reputations. 

For those who work in digital media businesses, this won’t be the first time you have heard that your industry is facing disruption – but this is the first time in a generation that the lawmakers are the disruptors. We understand that the scale and pace of change can feel overwhelming – but there is no denying that the law is the sea on which you sail. Our Lawful Disruption series will sketch a map of that shifting sea and explain how to navigate the regulatory currents. What you do with that map is up to you, but we urge you to grasp it with both hands. By doing so, you can avoid the rocks, steer towards calm seas, and ensure that your business stands or falls based solely on your ability to inform and entertain your audience. 

Over the last 20 years the law itself has failed to keep pace with the shift to the digital, and the resulting changes in how digital content is delivered, paid for and consumed. Law makers and regulators the world over are playing catch up, and in the UK 2025 will mark a genuine transformation in the approach to media regulation, in part to protect consumers and in part to level playing fields (however the lawmakers define those fields). The list of new laws, regulations and change in regulatory emphasis is significant, and without careful preparation the disruption to media businesses will be painful. 

Our series begins with a look at the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024 (DMCCA). This legislation gives the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) the authority to issue fines of up to 10% of global turnover where businesses engage in unfair commercial practices such as fake reviews, drip pricing and subscription traps. In recent days, it has been reported that Google has already committed to changing its reviews policy in response. Paul Hilder’s article explains what the new law says, when it’s coming and how you should respond. Later in the series, Sara Warner will explore the potential impact on search advertising in the context of the CMA’s investigation into Google, exercising its new regulatory powers under the DMCCA almost immediately.

The Lawful Disruption series will continue with a close look at a range of new laws that will impact how content is created, made available and searched, and how it is charged for.

Amongst other topics, the series will explore: 

The future of targeted advertising

The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) had made it clear that it will act to ensure consumers are given meaningful choice over how they are tracked online. It is consulting on new guidance covering the use of cookies and other tracking technologies and has already issued guidance on the use of "consent or pay" business models (which are increasingly prevalent among digital media businesses). Until now, the ICO has focused its attention on the top 200 UK websites – now they plan to expand their scrutiny to the top 1000. Our article will explore how to balance the requirement to give consumers more choice over tracking with the commercial imperative to protect advertising revenue.

The responsibility to protect users of online platforms 

The Online Safety Act will impose new duties on platform owners to protect their users (particularly children) from harmful content. Affected businesses have until 16 March 2025 to complete an initial risk assessment of their platform. Ofcom has provided a useful interactive tool to help organisations carry out this risk assessment. Meta may be getting rid of its independent fact checkers in the US, but this laissez-faire attitude carries unacceptable risks in the UK and Europe.  

Leveraging artificial intelligence in compliance with the law

Policymakers across multiple jurisdictions are taking steps to require publishers to label AI generated content – the thought being that transparency is needed to prevent the spread of misleading or untrue material. Whether this policy is the right way to pursue this goal or not (see here for an interesting discussion), publishers using AI to assist in content creation will need to understand their transparency obligations. 

If you are already using or intend to use AI to generate content, what are your legal liabilities? Will you be liable if your AI system generates defamatory content or infringes a third party’s copyright? What changes will you need to make to your editorial guidelines, or will you follow Meta’s lead and remove fact checkers entirely?

Defending your commercial interests where your content is used to train generative AI

Digital media businesses are concerned that they have no way of knowing when their copyright works are being used to train AI. The lack of transparency makes it difficult for rights holders to generate revenue by licensing the use of their content to train AI (or prevent their content from being used in this way in the first place). The Government is currently running a consultation which is proposing a new requirement for AI developers to disclose the training data underpinning their models. For more detail on how this will affect publishers, see our article Human says no, AI says more data please.  

New rights & responsibilities for broadcasters under the Media Act 2024

The Media Act is the first significant change to media law in over 20 years. Among other things, it will level the playing field between public service broadcasters and video-on-demand (VOD) by making the latter subject to Ofcom’s broadcasting code. This means the likes of Netflix will have new responsibilities to prevent the broadcast of harmful, offensive or inaccurate content. Ofcom will have more robust powers, including issuing fines of up to £250,000 and – potentially –  restricting a service’s availability in the UK. We will unpick the key aspects of the Media Act – covering the implications for radio as well as TV.  

New obligations on how you handle personal data

Data is the new oil in the online world, and 2025 will see yet more change, and new obligations imposed on businesses in how they handle the data of their customers. We will report on the key provisions of the newly published Data (Use and Access) Bill and steps you need to take to ensure compliance.

Our Lawful Disruption series is designed to be of interest to anyone in the media sector, whether you publish news, music or academic content. The scope of the new laws, and the change in the regulatory environment, will be significant and will lead to disruption to established delivery and payment models, to how platforms are designed and to the methods of engaging with customers. Our aim is to help prepare your business, mitigate risks and identify new opportunities to be exploited.

As the series develops, we’d also love to hear from you with your own thoughts and insights. Please contact any member of our team.

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