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European Advertising Standards Alliance

EASA

EASA is a non-profit promoting ethical standards in advertising through a network of national self-regulatory organizations.

Lobbying Activity

Meeting with Dóra Dávid (Member of the European Parliament)

14 Jan 2026 · Event: “Advertising self-regulation in the wider policy mix: a vital component to bolster responsible influencer marketing practices”

Meeting with Antonina Cipollone (Head of Unit Secretariat-General)

2 Dec 2025 · Self Regulation

Meeting with Sabrina Repp (Member of the European Parliament)

23 Oct 2025 · Media

Advertising body EASA urges reliance on existing consumer laws

21 Oct 2025
Topic — EU consultation on closing consumer protection gaps in the digital environment.
Message — EASA argues current consumer protection laws are sufficient and should remain the primary regulatory tool. They advocate for awareness-raising and improved enforcement rather than new rules for influencer marketing. The alliance also calls for formal recognition of self-regulatory mechanisms to simplify compliance efforts.123
Why — Formal recognition would bolster their institutional legitimacy while avoiding new, costly compliance requirements.45
Impact — Consumer groups seeking strict bans on harmful products may find self-regulation insufficient.6
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Advertising body EASA urges narrow AI deep fake disclosure rules

14 Oct 2025
Topic — The Commission is consulting on simplifying digital rules and implementing the AI Act.
Message — EASA requests a narrow interpretation of deep fake rules for AI-assisted content. They argue advertisements should be exempt from disclosures required for public interest matters. They also seek to exclude self-regulatory bodies from high-risk AI rules.123
Why — This reduces administrative burdens and prevents labels from interfering with creative advertising displays.45
Impact — Consumers may face reduced transparency regarding realistic but generic AI-generated imagery in advertisements.6
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Meeting with Kilian Gross (Head of Unit Communications Networks, Content and Technology)

14 Oct 2025 · Exchange of views on the Code of Practice of Transparent AI Systems – Definition of Deepfakes and methodology for labelling

Meeting with Dóra Dávid (Member of the European Parliament)

1 Oct 2025 · Minor protection online

EASA urges EU to prioritize self-regulation over new laws

29 Aug 2025
Topic — The EU is establishing consumer policy priorities and digital protections for 2025-2030.
Message — EASA argues that existing laws like the Unfair Commercial Practices Directive are sufficient for digital markets. They recommend recognizing self-regulation and training programs instead of creating new bans.123
Why — Preserving the status quo prevents new administrative burdens and protects the industry's competitiveness.45
Impact — Vulnerable groups may lose stronger legal protections if situational vulnerability is excluded from laws.6
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Response to Guidance on the implementation of Regulation (EU) 2024/900 on the transparency and targeting of political advertising

25 Jun 2025

EASA represents and coordinates collective advertising self-regulatory systems across Europe, promoting high ethical standards in commercial communications. EASA stresses that the future guidance should guarantee that commercial advertising, including issue-based advertising with a clear commercial purpose, is excluded from the scope of this Regulation. The interpretation of the definition of political advertising is of direct concern to EASA members. Considering that a priority of this future guidance will be to clarify how to apply the determinants of political advertising identification, it is fundamental that the guidelines keep to the letter and spirit of the Regulations definition of political advertising. Indeed, from EASAs perspective, the future guidelines should serve as a practical tool to help identify what does, and does not, constitute political advertising, without departing from its boundaries set by Article 3(2) of the Regulation and Article 8. They should help to ensure that a message is only considered political advertising when a clear and substantial link exists between this message and its potential to influence the outcome of an election or referendum, a legislative or regulatory process or voting behaviour, as established in Recital 23. Consequently, the guidelines should clarify that purpose-driven marketing practices, whereby a brand supports social causes in alignment with its core values, also called issue-based commercial advertising, are not in any case covered by this Regulation. This clarification is of utmost relevance because the Regulation was not written with the purpose to equalise issue-based commercial advertising with advertising aiming at influencing political outcomes. Finally, Art. 8(g) of the Regulation states that for the purpose of determining whether a message constitutes political advertisement within the meaning of Article 3(2), the objective of the message is one of the features that shall be taken into account. Therefore, it becomes explicit that commercial advertising, including issue-based ads, which have purely commercial objectives, are not covered by this Regulation. For all of these reasons, the future guidelines should stick to the aim and scope of the Regulation and to the strict definition and accurate interpretation of the term political advertising as described in its Art. 3(2). On top of that, it should be noted that commercial advertising is already strongly regulated by EU law, such as the Unfair Commercial Practices Directive (UCPD), Audiovisual Media Services Directive (AVMSD) and Digital Services Act (DSA). Furthermore, these legal Acts are complemented by the advertising self-regulatory systems, which provide robust, flexible and consumer-friendly mechanisms to ensure responsible advertising. As the core of these systems, EASAs self-regulatory members (SROs) across Europe enforce advertising codes of practice at the national level, as encouraged by the UCPD, AVMSD and DSA. In the attached file, there is a more detailed explanation of EASAs position regarding this initiative for guidance, including concrete examples of issue-based commercial advertisements successfully handled by EASA Self-Regulatory Organisations. We would be pleased to provide any additional input and examples in further exchanges if necessary.
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Meeting with Egelyn Braun (Cabinet of Commissioner Michael McGrath)

11 Jun 2025 · Exchange of views on the forthcoming Digital Fairness Act

EASA urges exemptions for non-deceptive AI content in advertising

4 Jun 2025
Topic — The European Commission is seeking feedback on a strategy to boost AI adoption.
Message — EASA recommends a case-by-case approach to disclosure based on the deception potential of ads. They propose exempting marginal or obviously fictional content from labelling and excluding self-regulators from high-risk classifications.123
Why — This would avoid excessive labelling requirements that could lead to consumer fatigue and distrust.45
Impact — Consumers lose the right to broad transparency regarding all synthetic content in advertisements.6
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Meeting with Dóra Dávid (Member of the European Parliament)

24 Mar 2025 · Advertising Framework in the EU

Meeting with Marco Giorello (Head of Unit Communications Networks, Content and Technology) and Bureau Européen des Unions de Consommateurs and

19 Mar 2025 · Code of Conduct on Online Advertising – Workshop 4

Meeting with Marco Giorello (Head of Unit Communications Networks, Content and Technology) and Apple Inc. and

13 Mar 2025 · Code of Conduct on Online Advertising – Workshop 3

Meeting with Marco Giorello (Head of Unit Communications Networks, Content and Technology) and EuroCommerce and

6 Mar 2025 · Code of Conduct on Online Advertising – Workshop 2

Meeting with Marco Giorello (Head of Unit Communications Networks, Content and Technology) and EuroCommerce and

4 Mar 2025 · Code of Conduct on Online Advertising – Workshop 1

Meeting with András Tivadar Kulja (Member of the European Parliament)

20 Feb 2025 · Introductory meeting

Meeting with Rita Wezenbeek (Director Communications Networks, Content and Technology) and

11 Feb 2025 · Opening Session: DSA roundtable discussions on online advertising (Article 46 DSA)

Meeting with Laurence Farreng (Member of the European Parliament)

30 Jan 2025 · Présentation de la structure et autorégulation de la publicité

Response to Advanced alternative dispute resolution for consumers

20 Dec 2023

About the European Advertising Standards Alliance (EASA): EASA represents and coordinates collective advertising self-regulatory systems accross Europe. A more detailed presentation of EASA is available in the attached paper. EASA welcomes and supports the following changes proposed under of the draft Directive, insofar as they would open the possibility to acquire the ADR entity status to new areas such as advertising: -> Article 1(1) and (2) of the Draft Directive expanding the scope of the ADR Directive to consumer rights applicable to non-contractual and pre-contractual situations and provided in Union law, including unfair commercial practices and terms. -> Article 1(3)(b) of the draft Directive amending the ADR Directives Article 5(2)(d) by removing an impracticable requirement about the exchange of information between the parties that is not suited to the complaints about advertising content. However, certain changes should be made to the legislative proposal to ensure that an extended scope of the ADR Directives would not incur negative side-effects. Indeed, the proposed new wording of ADR Directives Article 14 poses significant risks to existing networks of complaint-handling bodies which are already well-organised to handle cross-border complaints swiftly and efficiently, such as EASAs Cross-Border Complaints system. -> Such risks include disorganising the handling of cross-border complaints, additional delays to the procedure, but also impairing the handling of domestic complaints due to the new paragraph 4 of Article 14 ADR Directive -> Also, the procedural rules should remain for the ADR entity to explain to the parties, as the ADR entity is the best placed to do so -> These risks are liable to discourage advertising self-regulatory organisations from seeking the ADR status -> In order to address these concerns, EASA recommends modifying the draft Directives Article 1(6) as explained in EASA's attached paper. Furthermore, Article 4(e) of the ADR Directive should be complemented with a specific time limit corresponding to the timespan during which advertising is being disseminated, failing which the ADR body would not be able to carry out its assessment of the submitted complaint. Therefore, EASA recommends modifying the draft Directives Article 1(3)(c) as explained in EASA's attached paper. Finally, EASA would like to stress that the possibility to obtain ADR status should remain entirely optional, and that the Directive should never be amended in a way that would make ADR status mandatory in any way. In the case where an SRO would acquire ADR status, the status should in any case allow the SRO to preserve its self-regulatory nature and not force it into a co-regulatory type of relationship with public authorities. Moreover, EASA remains entirely neutral on the question of whether its SRO members should, or should not, seek ADR status in the future. Furthermore, EASA is not making any qualitative distinction within its varied SRO membership based upon an SRO has such a status or has not.
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Meeting with Laura Ballarín Cereza (Member of the European Parliament, Rapporteur) and Ecommerce Europe and facua - consumidores en accion

5 Dec 2023 · ADR/ODR

Meeting with Cyrus Engerer (Member of the European Parliament, Rapporteur)

29 Sept 2023 · Green Claims Directive

EASA warns against overlapping retail investment advertising rules

28 Aug 2023
Topic — New EU measures aim to boost retail investor confidence and participation in capital markets.
Message — EASA wants new rules to respect existing consumer protection laws. They argue for narrowing marketing definitions to exclude neutral information.12
Why — Maintaining self-regulatory systems allows them to adapt quickly to new technologies.3
Impact — Investors may suffer from a confusing and inconsistent legal framework.4
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Advertising alliance urges recognition of self-regulation in green claims

20 Jul 2023
Topic — A proposal to require companies to scientifically substantiate their environmental performance claims.
Message — EASA requests clarification on the definition of explicit environmental claims and official recognition for collective advertising self-regulation. They also warn that mandatory pre-approval risks creating backlogs for seasonal goods.123
Why — Preserving self-regulation protects the industry from expensive, rigid oversight and prevents administrative delays.45
Impact — Consumers may face higher prices or reduced information if companies stop voluntary green advertising.678
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Meeting with Marc Angel (Member of the European Parliament, Rapporteur)

8 Nov 2022 · Audiovisual Media Services Directive

Meeting with Petra Kammerevert (Member of the European Parliament, Rapporteur) and Bureau Européen des Unions de Consommateurs and

12 Oct 2022 · Implementierung AVMD

Meeting with Maria-Manuel Leitão-Marques (Member of the European Parliament, Shadow rapporteur)

5 Sept 2022 · Political Advertising

Meeting with Biljana Borzan (Member of the European Parliament, Rapporteur) and VF Europe

21 Jun 2022 · Empowering consumers for the green transition

EASA urges EU to trust self-regulation for digital fairness

14 Jun 2022
Topic — The EU is evaluating if consumer protection laws adequately address digital challenges.
Message — The organization argues that revising current consumer laws is unnecessary because existing rules and industry self-regulation already protect consumers. They claim that self-regulation offers a flexible and fast response to emerging issues like influencer marketing and dark patterns.123
Why — This avoids additional regulatory burdens while cementing the authority of industry-led self-regulation.45
Impact — Consumer groups lose the potential for stronger, legally binding protections against manipulative digital practices.6
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Response to Empowering the consumer for the green transition

25 May 2022

The European Advertising Standards Alliance (EASA) welcomes the opportunity to provide feedback on the “Empowering consumers for the green transition”, and more specifically on the proposed amendments to the Unfair Commercial Practices Directive. About EASA Established in 1992, EASA represents and coordinates the advertising collective self-regulatory systems across Europe. Its membership is composed of 28 independent advertising self-regulatory organisations (SROs), which ensure the enforcement of advertising self-regulatory codes of conduct at national level, 13 advertising industry associations (advertisers, agencies, the media) and a digital pure player, which support these self-regulatory systems and commit to their principles. Advertising self-regulation effectively addresses issues of green claims EASA’s self-regulatory members across Europe enforce national advertising codes of conduct that are inspired by the principles of the International Chamber of Commerce Advertising and Marketing Communications Code (ICC code), or that directly apply it. The ICC Code covers the issue of misleading environmental claims in its chapter D. It is complemented by a specific ICC Framework offering guidance to support practitioners in applying the ICC Code’s principles to environmental advertising. Furthermore, many SROs also enforce specific codes of conducts which specifically address green claims, or rules included in their general advertising codes which apply to these claims. These rules complement EU and national regulations, with the added benefit that they can swiftly adapt to evolving advertising techniques, scientific discoveries, but also to societal changes. Beyond the enforcement of codes of conduct, the ad SR system features monitoring, training and compliance advice to the industry with the aim of ensuring responsible advertising. European SROs handle on average 60.000 complaints per year and deliver additional 90.000 pieces of tailored advice to the industry. EASA would like to highlight the extensive experience of SROs in dealing with actual green claim cases, considering that green claim cases make up on average 12% of SROs’ handled complaints. Self-regulation is well recognised by EU law Principles for Better Self- and Co- Regulation (SRCR), endorsed by EU Commission’s Better Regulation Agenda and Toolbox , provide guidance for conception and implementation of SRCR systems and list robust criteria that need to be fulfilled to establish a comprehensive self- or co-regulatory regime. Therefore, we would like to stress that due consideration should be given to advertising self-regulation. Indeed, the advertising collective self-regulatory system provides a cost efficient and expeditious dispute resolution, as 94% of cases are resolved within two months. Furthermore, benefits of self-regulation and codes of conduct are also recognised as such in sector-specific EU legal acts, such as the Audiovisual Media Services Directive. Self-regulation should be accounted for in the proposed UCPD amendments In its Article 10, the Unfair Commercial Practices Directive recognises and encourages the role of self-regulation. In addition, we would like to highlight that self-regulation already deals with the vast majority of practices covered by the inserted provisions, including most of the proposed new bans on misleading claims. Therefore, it would be coherent for the newly drafted provisions to make a reference to UCPD’s Article 10, and more specifically to national self-regulatory systems protecting consumers from misleading environmental claims. Specific legal recognition of these self-regulatory systems is key to encouraging new companies to join them and for their development in the fight against misleading claims. (Further feedback is available in the attached document)
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Meeting with Karen Melchior (Member of the European Parliament, Shadow rapporteur)

9 Mar 2022 · Digital Services Act (DSA)

Response to Transparency of political advertising

31 Jan 2022

The European Advertising Standards Alliance (EASA) welcomes the opportunity to provide feedback on the proposal for a Regulation on the transparency and targeting of political advertising, as adopted by the European Commission, ahead of the discussions in the European Parliament and in the Council. EASA is the single authoritative voice on advertising self-regulation in Europe and promotes high ethical standards in commercial communications by means of effective self-regulation. Established in 1992, EASA represents and coordinates the advertising self-regulatory systems across Europe. Its membership is composed of 28 independent advertising self-regulatory organisations (SROs), which enforce advertising self-regulatory codes of conduct at national level, and 14 stakeholders representing the advertising ecosystem (advertisers, agencies, media, and digital platforms) which are all committed to ensuring responsible advertising. Considering the concerns of foreign influence and disinformation during elections and their potential impact on society and democracy, we understand the purpose driving the Commission in the development of regulation for enhanced political advertising transparency. However, the definition of political advertising is of direct concern to the members of EASA. Indeed, it is of the utmost importance for the definition to unambiguously exclude all types of commercial advertising from its scope in order to avoid unhelpful duplication. The provisions of the proposed Regulation must prevent its scope from unintendedly encroaching on matters of commercial advertising, which are already properly and efficiently covered by existing frameworks. It should be noted that commercial advertising is already regulated by EU law, such as the Unfair Commercial Practices Directive (UCPD) and Audiovisual Media Services Directive (AVMSD) . These legal Acts are complemented by the advertising self-regulatory systems, which provide robust, flexible and consumer-friendly mechanisms to ensure responsible advertising. As the core of these systems, EASA’s self-regularly members (SROs) across Europe enforce advertising codes of practice at national level, as encouraged by the UCPD and AVMSD. The definition of political advertising, as currently spelled out in Art. 2(2) of the proposal, is a matter of serious concern to EASA, due to its paragraph (b) that would cover a wide array of issue-based advertisements, including commercial advertisements. For instance, purpose-driven marketing practices, in which a brand supports social causes aligned with its core values, would be covered by the definition of political advertising. This could be the case, for example, of a telecom operator advertising against hate speech, or a brand conveying some immigration-friendly or environment-friendly messages in some ads, which could be interpreted as politically connotated. Similarly, ads containing references to the defence of traditions could be deemed politically oriented as well. It should be noted that consumers are becoming increasingly conscious about the products and services they purchase and want confidence that retailers and service providers adopt fair, ethical and sustainable business practices. As such, it is important for advertising be able to reflect this, for example through issue-based ads, without facing the extensive requirements meant for political advertising. Such ads will nonetheless have to comply with the above-mentioned legal provisions on commercial advertising, complemented by self-regulatory frameworks. Hence, to avoid legal uncertainty, “issue-based advertising” by commercial actors should not be covered by legal provisions aimed at regulating political advertising. Therefore, EASA stresses that commercial advertising , including issue-based advertising with a clear commercial purpose, should be excluded from the scope of this proposal for a Regulation. Please find further details in the attached file.
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Response to Update of the Better Internet for Children Strategy (BIK Strategy)

28 Oct 2021

As detailed in the attached paper, Self-Regulation in advertising enforced by Self-Regulatory Organisations appears especially fit for the purpose of enhancing children protection online as described in the European Commission’s Roadmap. EASA therefore encourages the European Commission to recognise and take into account the value self-regulation’s can bring in the update of the BIK Strategy.
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Response to Digital Services Act: deepening the Internal Market and clarifying responsibilities for digital services

31 Mar 2021

The European Advertising Standards Alliance (EASA) would like to comment on the proposal for a Regulation on a Single Market for Digital Services (Digital Services Act - DSA) which main objectives are to contribute to the protection of consumers, ensure higher standards on transparency and accountability of online platforms and foster innovation. Even though the DSA will update the horizontal legal framework for digital services, the EU policy makers should further ensure that it recognises existing legal frameworks and does not duplicate or weaken any existing best practices, such as advertising self-regulation, which has proven its added value and effectiveness in protecting consumers and responsible business from misleading, harmful or offensive advertising. The full feedback is available in the attached position paper.
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Response to Empowering the consumer for the green transition

31 Aug 2020

The European Advertising Standards Alliance (EASA) welcomes the opportunity to provide feedback on the Inception Impact Assessment on “Empowering the consumer for the green transition”, more specifically where it refers to issues of “greenwashing” or “environmental claims”. EASA strongly believes in the effectiveness of the advertising self-regulatory system in ensuring responsible commercial communications. EASA encourages the European Commission to be mindful of the advertising self-regulatory system which is an effective and consumer friendly tool in dealing with misleading environmental claims operating within the existing legal framework. The Alliance therefore believes that the policy objective of empowering the consumers for the green transition can be achieved by effectively enforcing the existing legal framework and utilising the support of advertising self-regulatory systems, which provide a robust, flexible and consumer friendly mechanism to ensure responsible advertising in relation to environmental claims and other related issues. About EASA Established in 1992, EASA represents and coordinates the advertising self-regulatory systems across Europe. Its membership is composed of 28 independent advertising self-regulatory organisations (SROs), which ensure the enforcement of advertising self-regulatory codes of conduct at national level, and 13 advertising industry associations (advertisers, agencies and the media), which support these self-regulatory systems and commit to their principles. Advertising self-regulation effectively addresses issues of green claims EASA’s self-regulatory members across Europe enforce national advertising codes of practice that are inspired by the principles of the International Chamber of Commerce Advertising and Marketing Communications Code (ICC code) or directly apply the ICC code, which covers the issue of misleading environmental claims. These rules are complemented by specific guidance and frameworks. They are flexible and can adapt to new fast evolving advertising techniques and new scientific discoveries. Beyond the enforcement of codes of conduct, the ad SR system features monitoring, training and compliance advice to the industry with the aim of ensuring responsible advertising. European SROs handle on average 60.000 complaints per year and deliver additional 90.000 pieces of tailored advice to the industry. Advertising self-regulation is recognised within the current legal framework and must be accounted for in any legislative initiative Principles for Better Self- and Co- Regulation (SRCR) , endorsed by EU Commission’s Better Regulation Agenda provide guidance for conception and implementation of SRCR systems and list robust criteria that need to be fulfilled in order to establish a comprehensive self- or co-regulatory regime. Therefore, we would like to ensure that due consideration is given to advertising self-regulation. Indeed, the advertising self-regulatory system provides a cost efficient and expeditious dispute resolution, as vast majority of cases are resolved within two months. Furthermore, benefits of self-regulation and codes of conduct are already recognised as such, for instance in the Audiovisual Media Services Directive and the Unfair Commercial Practices Directive.
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Meeting with Marlene Holzner (Digital Economy)

1 Sept 2016 · AVMSD

Meeting with Renate Nikolay (Cabinet of Commissioner Věra Jourová)

10 Apr 2015 · Consumer policy