The Interactive Advertising Bureau Europe (“IAB Europe”) has published a paper setting out its key commitments and policy principles ahead of the 2024-2029 EU legislative term.

The paper, titled ‘Towards an Inclusive, Safe, and Innovative Digital Europe’, begins by setting out that IAB Europe and its members are committed to responsible advertising practices, respecting user privacy online, protecting the intellectual property of creators, and countering disinformation. It then calls on policymakers and regulators to adopt the following measures:

1. Value consumer benefits of advertising. It explains that sustaining the digital advertising market through political and policy change is key to preserving the benefits to consumers of discovering a wide range of products and services at competitive prices.
2. Recognise the role of advertising in economic recovery and growth.
3. Promote choice and diversity in digital advertising services. IAB Europe states that “an open, vibrant, and innovate market for ad services is a prerequisite for a healthy advertising and publishing supply chain. EU strategy can support this by avoiding ‘picking winners’ or disparaging valid business models, being neutral in terms of business model and technology and respecting single market freedoms, and, in particular, freedom to conduct business.”
4. Enable efforts to increase trust and confidence in digital advertising. The paper states that attitudes to personalised digital services and the use of data are changing and that younger consumers are “increasingly comfortable with the use of data to tailor online services”. It states that EU strategy should “continue to support the ad-funded Internet, and in particular industry efforts to raise awareness of safeguards and controls and build confidence among all EU consumers”.
5. Ensure stable and predictable regulation. According to IAB Europe, “a very significant body of new single market regulation is now in effect and these rules apply variously across the digital advertising ecosystem”. Rather than introduce yet more policy initiatives, it argues that the focus should instead be on ensuring that the existing rules are effectively and consistently implemented.
6. Encourage innovation in privacy protection. The paper states that future EU strategy should “recognise the risk-based approach and other key principles that are enshrined in the GDPR and guide innovation in privacy protection”.
7. Join up and coordinate ad-related policy areas. In light of the numerous policy areas which are relevant to the advertising supply chain (everything from consumer and data protection, to online safety, to competition regulation), IAB Europe argues that the EU takes a “holistic approach and ensures all areas of policy are well coordinated, developed and implemented in harmony with the operation of the ad market and the EU’s economic goals”. It recommends that new strategies and policies at EU level must be “evidence-based, targeted and proportionate, and subject to prior impact assessments and a ‘competitiveness check’ to minimise the burden and cost impact on the wider ad ecosystem”.
8. Engage all ecosystem players. The document states that “a healthy and successful ecosystem requires all market participants to work collaboratively, and the EU should work towards accurately understanding their respective roles and capabilities in the supply chain to inform any future EU policy affecting the advertising sector”.
9. Increase opportunities for collaborative industry initiatives. Finally, the paper points to the role of the digital advertising industry in developing standards, codes, and certification schemes, as well as in combatting misplacement, malware and fraud. It argues that it is “vital that policymakers and regulators leave space and opportunity for similar initiatives in the future, where the industry is uniquely placed to lead either independently or in partnership with policymakers or regulators”.

Commenting on the launch of the paper Townsend Feehan, CEO of IAB Europe, said: “The arrival of a new European Parliament and College of Commissioners in 2024 creates an opportunity to work together to build an ad-supported European internet in which citizens are empowered and protected in equal measure. There is now a broad and complex regulatory framework in place; the next mandate could usefully focus on ensuring that the implementation of that framework delivers an online environment that is economically, socially, and environmentally sustainable and a model for the world. We look forward to working with policymakers, regulators, and civil society in support of this aspiration”.

The paper can be read in full here.