WFA position paper on the EU Digital Markets Act

In December 2020, the European Commission published the Digital Markets Act, a proposed legislation aimed at addressing the market power of large online ‘gatekeeper’ platforms and fostering competition in digital markets, including the digital advertising market..

The Digital Markets Act proposal notes that advertisers and publishers lack information about how their ad spend is distributed and about the performance of their ads. The proposal therefore introduces obligations for ‘gatekeeper’ platforms to provide advertisers with pricing information (including information about the remuneration of other advertising intermediaries) and with free access to ad performance measuring tools. ‘Gatekeeper’ platforms would also have to enable advertisers to carry out their own independent verification of platforms’ online advertising services.

The measures introduced could potentially address some of the concerns raised by WFA members in a recent survey, which highlighted that 79% of WFA corporate member respondents lack data from online advertising platforms, and help foster a more diverse and competitive digital advertising market.

WFA’s position paper can be downloaded below.