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A pornography company that runs 18 adult websites has been fined £1m by the watchdog Ofcom for not having strong enough age checks.

AVS Group Ltd has been hit with the fine, plus a further £50,000 for failing to respond to information requests.

It is the third time that the internet and communications watchdog has fined a company in relation to the UK’s Online Safety Act, which came into force in July.

While AVS has implemented what it refers to as age verification, the regulator’s investigation did not deem it to be highly effective.

The company now has 72 hours to introduce age checks that Ofcom will view as effective or face a penalty of £1,000 a day.

This is on top of a £300 daily penalty until it responds to requests for information or for a maximum of 60 days.

Ofcom has opened investigations into 92 online services since the new rules were introduced.

It is prioritising sites with millions of monthly UK visitors and, therefore, the level of harm that they may pose.

Ofcom also said one major social media company, which it did not name, may face formal action if it did not improve its compliance procedures.

The Online Safety Act brought in a new set of laws aimed at protecting children and adults from harmful content.

More than half of the top 100 most popular adult services in the UK have introduced age checks since the new rules came into force in July, as well as social media platforms such as X, TikTok and Reddit, the regulator said.

Oliver Griffiths, Ofcom’s online safety group director, said: “The tide on online safety is beginning to turn for the better.

“But we need to see much more from tech companies next year and we’ll use our full powers if they fall short.”

The technology secretary, Liz Kendall, said: “Since the enforcement of the Online Safety Act, platforms have finally started taking responsibility for protecting children and removing illegal and hateful content.

“Ofcom has the government’s full backing to use all its powers to ensure that services put users’ safety first. Keeping children safe online is this government’s and my personal priority.”

“Crops look better and profitability is returning even in challenging years”: Mars champions Europe’s farmers and calls for the conditions to scale climate-smart agriculture

• More than 300 farmers across Europe already working with Mars to advance climate-smart agriculture practices on 60,900 hectares of land in parts of its pet care supply chain.
• Farmers across Europe report seeing “profitability returning”, more consistent yields, “better soil structure” and crops that “look better” thanks to regenerative techniques like cover cropping, crop rotation and reduced tillage.
• This World Soil Day, Mars is calling on European policymakers to help farmers thrive by creating an enabling environment that promotes public-private partnerships, outcomes-based public policy, and harmonized measurement aligned with global standards.

LONDON, UK (December 4, 2025) – On World Soil Day, Mars, Incorporated, a global leader in pet care products and services, confectionery, snacking and food and the maker of some of the world’s most-loved brands, is joining with partners and farmers in Europe to call on policymakers and scientists across Europe to enable scalable solutions that support farmers in adopting climate-smart agriculture practices. As Europe strengthens its role in shaping global agrifood policy and drives momentum behind regenerative, outcome-based farming, the region has become a natural focus for accelerating climate-smart solutions.¹

Last year, Mars announced multiple partnerships with leading agricultural suppliers and technical implementation experts including Agreena, Biospheres, Soil Capital and others to deliver tailored support across Europe’s diverse farming systems. Across Mars Petcare’s European supply chain, more than 300 farmers have implemented climate-smart practices, across over 60,900 hectares, from using cover crops in Buckinghamshire, UK, to implementing no-till cultivation in Pomeranian Voivodeship of Poland.  

A year on from the last major announcement, farmers say these regenerative practices have shown positive results. Antony, a farmer in South East England in a Mars climate-smart agriculture program, said: “We are on heavy clay soils, which were very prone to water logging. [Since adopting regenerative practices] we are much less concerned about water logging as infiltration rates are better, and we don’t worry so much about drought as water holding capacity is much improved. This has enabled us to operate a longer weather window, creating more field working days and reducing our labour charges accordingly”, adding that the “crops look better and profitability is returning even in challenging years.”

 

 

However, Mars emphasizes that systemic climate-smart agriculture change requires greater collaboration, especially considering barriers facing farmers like financial risk and lack of technical training.  

Paolo Rigamonti, Regional President Europe Pet Nutrition at Mars, said: “Europe’s farmers play a vital role in improving soil health. Through regenerative techniques, they can store more carbon, improve water filtration and support local ecosystems. Across Europe, Mars is investing to help farmers adopt these practices – but they can’t do it alone. We need the right conditions in place, and policies that accelerate what is already working.”

To accelerate this transformation and help farmers thrive, Mars is calling on policymakers and scientists to strengthen public policy that enables action at scale by:

• Unlocking public-private partnerships to deliver essential training, financial support and technical assistance for farmers.
• Prioritizing outcomes-based policies that respect regional differences and give farmers flexibility in how they achieve regenerative goals.
• Measuring impact through harmonized metrics aligned with global science-based standards such as Science-Based Targets initiative (SBTi) and GHG Protocol.  

Izabela, a farmer in northern Poland who has received financial and technical support for regenerative practices, said her farm has benefited from “increased water retention, which provides greater drought resistance and greater water absorption in the event of sudden heavy rains. We were still able to harvest this year, even though the fields were flooded after heavy rain in July.” Highlighting the need for more outcome-based policies, Izabela said: “Policy based on the results of specific agricultural practices supports the development of agriculture and provides freedom for proper management, while strict regulations detached from real needs and weather patterns can only harm farmers, the soil and crops.”

Farmers in Mars climate-smart agriculture programs need solutions that are tailored to Europe’s diverse landscapes – from drought adaptation to carbon sequestration. Success requires the right support system to accelerate and scale these practices across Europe.  

Norbert is a farmer in southern Hungary whose farm has been impacted by extremes of climate in recent years through prolonged dry periods. Improving climate resilience was among his motivations for implementing regenerative practices on his farm. Norbert said: “By abandoning rotational cultivation, the number of soil-dwelling organisms has increased significantly. The better soil structure and surface coverage can drain sudden rainfall faster, which usually results in a spectacular difference.”

Through collaborative partnerships and a clear call to action for policymakers, scientists and industry leaders, Mars continues its focus on scaling climate-smart agriculture in its value chain, which will help to deliver more than one million acres of regenerative practices across the globe by 2030. As part of the Mars Net Zero Roadmap, scaling climate-smart agriculture across its value chain is one of several critical initiatives Mars is advancing to reduce its GHG footprint. In its Sustainable in a Generation Report 2024, Mars, Incorporated announced 1.9% GHG emissions reduction compared with 2023, with an overall absolute reduction of 16.4% across the full value chain against a baseline of 2015 worldwide.  

Simon Haldrup, CEO at Agreena, said: “Scaling regenerative agriculture across Europe demands genuine collaboration between the private sector, policymakers and farmers – especially as farmers face growing pressures. Through Agreena’s partnership with Mars, we’re helping deliver the financial support and verified measurement needed to unlock real change on the ground. On World Soil Day, we’re reminded of the power beneath our feet, and Agreena echoes Mars’ call for policymakers to create the enabling environment required to rapidly scale these proven practices across Europe’s diverse farming landscapes.”  

Sébastien Roumegous, CEO at Biospheres, said: “Across Europe, the shift toward regenerative agriculture is progressing at uneven speeds. In countries like France, strong technical support helps farmers adopt new models, while in others, the lack of reliable local partners slows the transition. Our collaboration with Mars bridges this gap: it combines targeted financial support, robust scientific measurement and hands-on agronomic guidance that farmers can trust. By working together, we’re creating the conditions for regenerative practices to scale consistently across diverse landscapes and ensuring soils remain a foundation of resilience for future generations.”

Chuck de Liedekerke, CEO at Soil Capital, said: “At Soil Capital, our ambition is to make regenerative agriculture the norm. Expanding regenerative practices across Europe depends on consistent collaboration between farmers, businesses and policymakers. Our work with Mars rewards farmers who receive financial support because they deliver real, verified impact on the ground. The next step is for policymakers to put in place the framework to scale what’s already working across Europe’s diverse farm realities.” 
 

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1. EU agricultural outlook 2024-35: A resilient sector adapts to climate change, sustainability concerns, and shifting consumer demand – Agriculture and rural development
 

About Mars, Incorporated 
Mars, Incorporated is driven by the belief that the world we want tomorrow starts with how we do business today. As an approximately $55bn family-owned business, our diverse and expanding portfolio of leading pet care products and veterinary services support pets all around the world and our quality snacking and food products delight millions of people every day. We produce some of the world’s best-loved brands including ROYAL CANIN®, PEDIGREE®, WHISKAS®, CESAR®, DOVE®, EXTRA®, M&M’S®, SNICKERS® and BEN’S ORIGINAL™. Our international networks of pet hospitals, including BANFIELD™, BLUEPEARL™, VCA™ and ANICURA™ span preventive, general, specialty, and emergency veterinary care, and our global veterinary diagnostics business ANTECH® offers breakthrough capabilities in pet diagnostics. The Mars Five Principles—Quality, Responsibility, Mutuality, Efficiency and Freedom—inspire our 150,000 Associates to act every day to help create a better world for people, pets and the planet.  

For more information about Mars, please visit www.mars.com. Join us on Facebook(Opens a new window), Instagram(Opens a new window), LinkedIn(Opens a new window) and YouTube(Opens a new window).

About Agreena  
Headquartered in Denmark, Agreena is powering the global transition to regenerative agriculture, operating Europe’s leading soil carbon programme. Through its flagship AgreenaCarbon project, which is the first large-scale agricultural cropland initiative verified under Verra’s world-renowned Verified Carbon Standard, Agreena collaborates with thousands of farmers across 4.5 million hectares of arable land in 20 markets.  

Agreena finances farmers’ transition to sustainable practices, measures and verifies the climate impact with field-level accuracy and offers climate solutions to corporates to achieve their sustainability goals. Agreena’s holistic solution is built on three pillars: farmer engagement, which provides essential financing, knowledge, and resources to support growers in making impactful change; scalable dMRV, integrating satellite imagery, ground-level soil sampling and proprietary AI models to precisely quantify practice changes and carbon outcomes at scale; and verified carbon and environmental data, empowering companies to make credible sustainability claims, support farmer-led climate action and access high-integrity carbon credits. Visit www.agreena.com.

About Biospheres  
BIOSPHERES is an international organization committed to accelerating the transition toward large-scale regenerative agriculture.  

Present in more than 20 countries, BIOSPHERES supports farmers, companies and territories in restoring ecosystems while improving the long-term profitability and resilience of agricultural systems.

Its approach combines scientific methodologies, field expertise, and strategic partnerships with major agri-food players to deploy regenerative solutions at scale.

From soil health assessment to change-management programs, from carbon and biodiversity strategies to on-farm coaching, BIOSPHERES works across the entire value chain to help organizations build productive, climate-resilient and ecosystem-positive agriculture. Driven by a clear ambition, making regenerative agriculture viable, measurable and replicable, the team develops tools, training programs and field projects that translate science into practical, scalable action. A sustainable, profitable and regenerative agriculture is possible — and it is already underway. 

About Soil Capital  
Founded in 2013, Soil Capital is a certified B Corp on a mission to support farmers in their transition to regenerative and sustainable agriculture. Operating across the United Kingdom, France, and Belgium, Soil Capital has developed an innovative programme that uses agronomic intelligence to connect businesses seeking more resilient supply chains with farmers rewarded for improving soil health, mitigating climate change, and reinforcing food security. To date, ‍Soil Capital has distributed more than €15 million directly to farmers, rewarding their adoption of regenerative practices. The programme is built on a reliable methodology that complies with the FLAG requirements of the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi), helping companies reduce their scope 3 emissions and sustainable goals. Learn more at www.soilcapital.com.