The V Spot Live 17th April 2026

Welcome to the VSpot Live, your home for the e-com early news. Yeah, this is live, what could go wrong? So eBay and Meta announced this week that they had an affiliate partnership— well, 3 weeks ago, I guess. Creators can now and then tag eBay listings natively inside Facebook posts and reels. No link in bio, no hunting the comments, just tap and buy. It's a genuinely significant commerce move. Our industry gave it about 45 seconds of attention and then moved on. Well played, eBay. Meanwhile, Jensen Huang, CEO of NVIDIA, the most powerful man in tech and wearer of leather jackets costing more than my car, opened a merch store this week. A merch store? His wife and daughter clearly dress him. He's been wearing the same jacket for nearly 20 years. He's not a biker. He's not even Danny Zuko. And if you know who Danny Zuko is, don't feel ashamed. Two stories, one was ignored, one involves a leather jacket that costs 9 grand, and you can guess which one got the coverage, right? Let's do the real news. But before we do, this episode is brought to you by Omnisend. While every platform in the industry raised fees on you this week, Omnisend was quietly helping merchants make more money from the customers that they already have. Email and SMS automation that actually works, built for e-commerce, and unlike Amazon, they'll tell you when something ends. Check out Omnisend.com. This week we are featuring 10 headlines we did not think we would see this week. Number 1, Shein and Temu are being sued for, get this, raising prices on tariffs the Supreme Court already struck down. They hiked up to about 377% to offset tariffs that were then ruled unconstitutional. The prices stayed. Lawyers noticed, as they do. Next up, Google blocked 8.3 billion ads in 2025, up from 5.1 billion the year before. That is 8.3 billion ads Google's own AI stopped before you saw them on a platform that makes its money from ads. Running an AI that kills ads. You could write a thesis on that. Someone probably has, and that someone is probably Mike Ryan. Number 3, Senator Elizabeth Warren wrote Elon Musk a letter this week about X money. Surprise, he got a letter. He's more of a digital guy, but consumer protection, national security, financial stability, crypto fork concerns. One letter, no reply yet. Elon, well, he posted a meme. The system works. 4, Google's AI mode now reads your open Chrome tabs while you search. Careful what you search, boys. Your browser now watches your every move, watches you browse for your convenience. That is fine. There is nothing wrong with that. Everything is just fine. Number 5, Solid Road, an Irish AI startup, raised $25 million in investment this week. Ryanair is a customer. They've built an AI on reviews that look at 100% of customer service conversation and then grade the agents. That is not going to end well. Ryanair, famously warm and generous in its customer relations, they use it. They're proud. We're also now kind of afraid. Never one for not being in the news, number 6, and it's Anthropic. They're expanding their London office to 158,000 square feet for 800 people. I had to just check that. The AI company the Pentagon called a national security risk is in, in the US now, is taking 158,000 square feet in Regent's Place, London. Different continent, totally different vibe, I guess. Totally different vibe, and that's okay. Plus UK-US relations, it's more like Love Actually than reality. Number 7 this week, also another Anthropic story. They gave UK banks access to its Mythos cybersecurity model. The FCA and the NCSC signed it off. The Pentagon, threat, the FCA. Here are the bank keys. Same company, same week. What a world we live in. Is it a simulation? Is this EdTV? Was that the show? Was that the movie? Or what was the one with Jim Carrey? Uh, number 8, we're almost there, folks. Don't have to listen to this for too much longer. Amazon and USPS did a deal. USPS keeps 80% of Amazon's parcel volume. And we spoke about this last week a little bit. Amazon threatened to walk USPS They blinked and they peed a little. Uh, the 8% USPS surcharge still hits everyone else on April 26th. That is in a little over one week's time. Amazon sorted, you not sorted. Good talk, good talk. Uh, number 9, Google appointed the former THG Beauty CMO as director of retail for UK and Ireland. Why is it always UK and Ireland? Normally in these things it's alphabetic, it should be Ireland and UK. Here we go, it's UK and Ireland. Guess that's the way our relationship has always been. If you spent the last 3 years wondering where THG's talent went, now you know. Google Retail UK and Ireland, the revolving door has a very good benefits package. At number 10, eBay posted a job this week for an agentic search project designer to reinvent the way the world shops and sells. eBay reinventing how the world shops. The platform your uncle used to sell vintage golf clubs at 11 PM on a Wednesday. We are genuinely and sincerely rooting for them. And that's your 10. And before we go, Sumo Blue Marketing— if you've just listened to the 10 stories about AI, surcharges, lawsuits, and Ryanair, now you're wondering what any of it means for you and your actual marketing spend, Sumo Blue are the people who can tell you. Real Strategy, Real Channels, they're SumoBlue Marketing. That is the approximate 6 minutes you are not getting back this week, and that was live, all in one take, no breath. Thanks for tuning in, folks.