Politics
Disney sued in Florida after FTC settlement involving YouTube video mislabeling
It’s the latest legal trouble for Disney over its YouTube videos not being properly labeled ‘made for kids.’
The Mouse got hit with a federal lawsuit this week in Orlando just weeks after Disney reached a $10 million settlement with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) over allegations the entertainment company illegally collected minors’ personal data from its YouTube videos.
Yanatha Desourve sued in U.S. District Court’s Orlando division on behalf of his two underage children in a lawsuit seeking class action status.
Disney’s and Desourve’s attorneys did not respond to a request for comment.
Desourve’s lawsuit accused Disney of failing to designate its videos as “made for kids” and harvesting their cookies and device IDs to get their personal information without parents’ knowledge.
“Disney’s conduct illegally invades the privacy of millions of children in the United States, and it violates an array of federal and state statutes protecting children and consumers,” the lawsuit alleged. “Disney’s failure was not accidental or technical; it was a deliberate business decision that prioritized deliberate collaboration that prioritized advertising revenue over children’s privacy rights.”
Desourve’s two children, who live in Florida and were under the age of 13 between 2019 and September 2025, watched Disney YouTube videos at least twice every week, the complaint said.
The lawsuit is seeking class action status, noting that millions of children watched Disney YouTube videos starring Mickey Mouse and characters from beloved Disney movies like “Moana” and “Frozen.”
The FTC accused Disney of violating Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) by improperly labeling its YouTube content, which also “exposed children to age-inappropriate YouTube features like autoplay to videos not ‘Made for Kids.’”
“Our order penalizes Disney’s abuse of parents’ trust, and, through a mandated video-review program, makes room for the future of protecting kids online — age assurance technology,” FTC Chair Andrew Ferguson said in a press release last month.
A Disney spokesperson told Reuters, “This settlement does not involve Disney-owned and operated digital platforms but rather is limited to the distribution of some of our content on YouTube’s platform.”
