Lobbying by Interactive Advertising Bureau Europe

Interactive Advertising Bureau Europe

IAB Europe

IAB Europe is the European-level association for the digital marketing and advertising ecosystem.

Focus Areas

2024-2025

2021-2024

2015-2021

Links

Website Transparency Register Profile

ID: 43167137250-27

Lobbying Activity

IAB Europe urges EU to maintain stable media rules

19 Dec 2025

Topic — The Commission is evaluating the impact and potential review of audiovisual media rules.

Message — The organization calls for a stable regulatory framework rather than reopening the current directive. They argue that existing rules already protect users and that enforcement should focus on better coordination.1 2 3

Why — Maintaining the status quo avoids the legal complexity and uncertainty of new regulations.4 5

Impact — Consumer groups seeking stricter, legally binding safeguards lose out to industry-led self-regulation.6

Read full response

Meeting with Piotr Müller (Member of the European Parliament)

6 Nov 2025 · Digital Fairness Act

IAB Europe urges repeal of outdated ePrivacy cookie rules

14 Oct 2025

Topic — The EU Digital Omnibus aims to simplify regulations and provide relief for businesses.

Message — IAB Europe requests the repeal of existing cookie rules to align with GDPR. They suggest whitelisting low-risk activities to allow data processing without user consent.1 2

Why — Modernized rules would reduce compliance costs and improve the investment climate for advertisers.3 4

Impact — Consumers lose the right to opt-out of tracking activities reclassified as low-risk.5

Read full response

Meeting with Dóra Dávid (Member of the European Parliament)

3 Oct 2025 · Minor protection online

Response to Guidance on the implementation of Regulation (EU) 2024/900 on the transparency and targeting of political advertising

25 Jun 2025

IAB Europe welcomes the opportunity through the attached document to contribute to the European Commission's guidance for implementing Regulation (EU) 2024/900 on political advertising. The association supports the Regulation's objective of increasing transparency and protecting democratic processes. A primary concern addressed in our submission is the potential for the definition of "political advertising" to inadvertently include commercial advertising. IAB Europe believes the final text of the Regulation, particularly the addition of "and designed" in Article 3(2)(b) and clarification in Recital 23, appropriately narrows the scope to messages with a deliberate political objective. Commercial communications, already regulated by existing EU directives (UCPD, AVMSD, DSA) and self-regulatory systems, should remain out of scope. Key recommendations for the forthcoming guidelines include: Clarifying that "issue-based" commercial advertising is out of scope: Commercial campaigns based on a brand's ethos (e.g., climate change, diversity) should not be deemed political advertising if their objective is not to influence a voting event or legislative outcome. This ensures legal certainty for brands and prevents self-censorship. Clarifying what constitutes "political actors": IAB Europe encourages the Commission to consider establishing a solution, in collaboration with Member States, for listing political actors taking part in elections. Clarifying the "liable and designed" concept: The guidance should specify that a message must be disseminated within a timeframe that is in proximity to a voting event to be considered "liable and designed" to influence it. Confirming the absence of general monitoring obligations: Service providers should be allowed to presume messages from non-political actors are not politically driven if no self-declaration is made, ensuring a clear allocation of responsibilities. Clarifying how service providers should assess notifications: The guidelines should provide clear instructions on how service providers should evaluate notifications alleging political advertising, recognising their limited ability to verify complex claims. IAB Europe urges the Commission to use this guidance to reaffirm the Regulation's scope, strictly limiting it to political advertising and excluding issue-based commercial advertising, in line with the text's spirit and policymakers' intent.

Read full response

IAB Europe urges narrow AI labeling to avoid consumer fatigue

4 Jun 2025

Topic — The European Commission is developing a strategy to accelerate industrial AI adoption.

Message — IAB Europe advocates for narrow AI labeling rules to prevent overwhelming consumers with warnings. They seek to align data protection requirements with the AI Act to reduce administrative burdens. Advertisers should be responsible for disclosing AI-generated content they create or approve.1 2 3

Why — Streamlined compliance would reduce operational costs and provide legal certainty for marketing firms.4 5

Read full response

Meeting with Michael McGrath (Commissioner) and

8 Apr 2025 · Exchange of views on targeted advertising

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 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 Regina Doherty (Member of the European Parliament)

4 Feb 2025 · Digital advertising

IAB Europe urges harmonised and flexible EU minor protection rules

30 Sept 2024

Topic — The European Commission is drafting safety and privacy guidelines for minors on platforms.

Message — IAB Europe requests that guidelines prioritize EU-wide harmonisation to prevent national market fragmentation. They advocate for flexible implementation tailored to specific services rather than one-size-fits-all rules. They also seek clarity on how child impact assessments align with existing legal obligations.1 2 3

Why — This would protect complex advertising supply chains and reduce technical and resourcing costs.4

Impact — National authorities would lose the power to implement stricter, localized digital safety regulations.5

Read full response

Meeting with Věra Jourová (Vice-President) and

16 Jun 2022 · Disinformation

Meeting with Alexandra Geese (Member of the European Parliament, Shadow rapporteur)

10 Mar 2022 · Political Advertising

Meeting with Werner Stengg (Cabinet of Executive Vice-President Margrethe Vestager)

9 Mar 2022 · Digital Services Act.

Response to Transparency of political advertising

31 Jan 2022

Please find enclosed IAB Europe's information note submitted in the context of the European Commission’s consultation on the proposal for a Regulation on the transparency and targeting of political advertising.

Read full response

Meeting with Monika Ladmanova (Cabinet of Vice-President Věra Jourová), Wojtek Talko (Cabinet of Vice-President Věra Jourová)

27 Jan 2022 · Political advertising

Meeting with Filomena Chirico (Cabinet of Commissioner Thierry Breton)

8 Jun 2021 · DSA and ePrivacy

Meeting with Věra Jourová (Vice-President)

26 May 2021 · Data protection

Meeting with Mikuláš Peksa (Member of the European Parliament, Rapporteur for opinion)

12 May 2021 · Digital Services Act

Response to Digital Services Act: deepening the Internal Market and clarifying responsibilities for digital services

31 Mar 2021

The following Executive Summary contains an overview of major points from IAB Europe’s position on the proposed Digital Services Act (DSA). IAB Europe (Transparency Register: 43167137250-27) is the European-level association for the digital advertising and marketing ecosystem. We appreciate the opportunity to submit these comments and we would like to reference the full version of our position paper, enclosed and accessible under the following link: https://iabeurope.eu/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/20210331_IAB_Europe_DSA_position.pdf. • We have taken good note of the importance attached by the European Commission to ensuring a sufficient level of transparency in digital advertising, an attachment that aligns to our own as reflected in a range of IAB Europe initiatives and activities intended to increase transparency, both Business-to-Business (B2B) and Business-to-Consumer (B2C), and enhance trust. • The DSA proposal helpfully confirms the important role that standards and codes of conduct can play in enabling industry practice to adapt to changing user expectations with respect to transparency. With a proven track record in industry standardisation, we appreciate regulator-supported approaches, which can solidify industry’s standards and drive their uptake in the market. • We believe that a discussion on what new transparency requirements are desired in the DSA must be fact-based, and in full understanding of what ex-ante General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) transparency requirements entail. • It is important that the future regulation preserve the possibility for users to make informed choices based on information disclosures – accessing some online content and services against payment and some against a willingness to receive advertisements, with all the user rights and company obligations that are already foreseen in EU privacy and data protection law – rather than taking choices out of their hands. • Empowering the user – in line with the significant transparency and accountability requirements under the GDPR – should pave the way to support sustainability of the “open web”. Putting into question the lawfulness of targeted advertising or proposing its prohibition, or aiming to introduce rules that would be redundant with or contradict the existing EU legal framework would be counterproductive. Importantly, it would lead to major unintended negative consequences on the EU media and ultimately on internet users themselves. Advertising does account for 81% of European media digital revenues, and any decrease in these monetisation opportunities would have great repercussions for the free and diverse press and media, and in turn, the social and political landscape in Europe. It would effectively deprive Europeans from free and open online experience. • In this spirit, we look forward to engaging with EU policymakers and legislators on the DSA dossier, and to contributing to the elaboration of a regulation that ensures that digital advertising can continue to support a pluralistic media and Europeans’ access to the free and open internet dependent on ad-supported content.

Read full response

Meeting with Werner Stengg (Cabinet of Executive Vice-President Margrethe Vestager) and Mobile Marketing Association France

7 Oct 2020 · To discuss online advertising

Meeting with Filomena Chirico (Cabinet of Commissioner Thierry Breton)

15 Sept 2020 · Developments on tracking cookies technologies

Response to Report on the application of the General Data Protection Regulation

29 Apr 2020

IAB Europe (Transparency Register: 43167137250-27) represents 25 European national associations who in turn represent over 5,000 companies from across the digital advertising and marketing ecosystem, from advertisers and advertising agencies on the buy side, news publishers and other ad-funded sites and online services on the sell side, and technology providers facilitating the delivery of ads. We have over 90 companies in direct membership, including agencies, technology companies, publishers and eCommerce companies. IAB Europe welcomes the opportunity to provide feedback on the application of the GDPR, conveying the views of the digital advertising and marketing ecosystem, including based on learnings from the legal compliance efforts undertaken by the industry. Complete input is available in the attached paper available on IAB Europe's website (https://iabeurope.eu/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/20200429_IAB_Europe_comments_on_GDPR_application_report.pdf), whereas the following points provide for an overview: ● The GDPR adoption was a substantial milestone, establishing the principles of data protection for the foreseeable future, including, and indeed explicitly, in the digital advertising context. ● Compliance with its provisions require material time and resources from companies that do business in and with the European Union (EU). IAB Europe and its members invested considerable resources in developing the Transparency & Consent Framework (TCF), which increases transparency, choice and accountability in relation to how personal data is processed by different actors in the online media and advertising sectors. These legal compliance efforts, amongst others, inform our views on the application of the GDPR. ● We recommend further harmonisation of rules and interpretation of GDPR concepts. In particular, we observe: ○ diverging interpretations of the notion of “freely given” consent which should be clarified, in a manner that is proportionate and in line with intended outcomes under the GDPR; ○ equal status of the all GDPR legal bases for processing being put in question, and more specifically, the availability of legitimate interests as a ground for the lawful processing of data for advertising-related purposes; ○ insufficient understanding of the interplay with the ePrivacy instrument, and introduction of rules in the proposed ePrivacy Regulation that deviate from the principles adopted with the GDPR. ● We believe that harmonisation of rules and interpretation of GDPR concepts should contribute to and enable effective enforcement of the law. Against this background, we advise that: ○ industry legal compliance tools, such as the TCF, can be used as enablers of effective enforcement; ○ transnational Codes of Conduct have the potential to bring significant benefits to data controllers and legal certainty to data subjects, and we would like to insist on the fact that this approach to compliance be prioritised. ● We fully support the need to protect citizens’ fundamental right to privacy and data protection, but we are concerned that in the process one may be losing sight of other fundamental rights protected in the EU, such as the right of property and the freedom and pluralism of the media. The GDPR must not be interpreted in vacuum, especially since Europe’s content economy depends on digital advertising. Advertising accounts for over 81% of European newspaper and magazine digital revenues, and any decrease in these monetisation opportunities supporting the objective, good-quality journalism would have serious consequences for the social and political landscape in Europe. We hope that following the public consultation period, the Commission will reflect some of our input in the final text of the report. We would be pleased to have the opportunity to discuss these observations with the Commission at an appropriate time.

Read full response

Meeting with Juhan Lepassaar (Cabinet of Vice-President Andrus Ansip), Stig Joergen Gren (Cabinet of Vice-President Andrus Ansip)

22 Nov 2018 · ePrivacy, GDPR, AI

Meeting with Manuel Mateo Goyet (Cabinet of Commissioner Mariya Gabriel)

22 Nov 2018 · Disinformation