In this episode of The MadTech Podcast, Charlotte Powers, head of digital, at Bountiful Cow, joins ExchangeWire's Mariam Ahmad and Mat Broughton to discuss the biggest news in the media, marketing, and commerce industries. 

Mad About Amazon Jamming Ads Into Prime Video? You’re Not Alone, Lawsuit Reveals (Forbes)

A class action suit against Amazon alleges that the tech giant has no right to suddenly introduce payment for a service as it has done with Amazon Prime Video, as users had already paid for the service. 

Could Amazon’s addition of its ad tier and updated payment plan have any negative impact on the tech giant? Are other streaming giants likely to follow suit in the future? 

UK Economy Plunges into Recession after People Cut Spending (BBC) 

The UK fell into recession at the end of 2023, official figures show. The economy shrank by a larger than expected 0.3% between October and December, meaning the economy failed to grow for two successive quarters.  

How concerning is this for the ad tech sector? Do you expect this to impact clients? 

Facebook £3bn Legal Action Given Go-Ahead in London (BBC)

A judge has given the go ahead to a mass legal action case worth up to £3bn, being brought by legal academic Dr Liza Lovdahl Gormsen on behalf of 45 million Facebook users. The claim states that the social media giant has “struck an unfair bargain with its users”, abusing its dominance by making users give it their data for non-Facebook related products, including Instagram and other third party sites. 

What are the possible ramifications of this for big tech? How are the current privacy-related legal cases across the tech landscape affecting the industry?