“Online disinformation is a major social challenge that has exposed the fragility of our democratic institutions,” said Townsend Feehan, IAB Europe CEO. “The exercise of drawing up this Code has confronted everyone involved with the sheer, confounding complexity of the problem. It has shown up the critical importance of enlisting the broadest possible scope of well-meaning actors if we are to have any hope of tackling it, and the limits to what we will be able to achieve if we do not”, warned Feehan.

Cross-industry investment in brand safety and further development of tools with the help of relevant third-party partners can result in substantially diminishing online disinformation. “We are glad to reaffirm our long-standing commitment to brand safety. Giving brands confidence that they are buying authentic inventory and placing ads in a safe environment helps safeguarding sustainability of the digital advertising business model, which at its core supports rich range of information sources for citizens, including quality content produced”, said Feehan.

IAB Europe also encourages continued EU-level investment in research to better understand the scope and nature of online disinformation, and in consumer education, notably in the area of media literacy, to increase people’s ability critically to assess information they receive.

We are looking forward to evangelising our industry about the Code, and to continued collaboration across the digital ecosystem on this major challenge.

Contact

Greg Mroczkowski, Public Policy Manager at IAB Europe (mroczkowski@iabeurope.eu, +32 4830 58 203)

About IAB Europe

IAB Europe is the leading European-level industry association for the digital advertising ecosystem. Its mission is to promote the development of this innovative sector and ensure its sustainability by shaping the regulatory environment, demonstrating the value digital advertising brings to Europe’s economy, to consumers and to the market, and developing and facilitating the uptake of harmonised business practices that take account of changing user expectations and enable digital brand advertising to scale in Europe.

[1] Working Group comprises of the following members: AIM, EACA, EASA, EDiMA, Facebook, Google, IAB Europe, Mozilla, Twitter, WFA.

[2] Communication ‘Tackling online disinformation: a European approach’; https://ec.europa.eu/digital-single-market/en/news/communication-tackling-online-disinformation-european-approach.

The draft Code was developed by a Working Group designated by DG CONNECT in the context of the Multi-stakeholder Forum on Disinformation (‘Forum’), of which the Working Group is part. IAB Europe is a member of the Working Group.

The draft Code will now be reviewed by the advisory group of stakeholders within the Forum, the Sounding Board, whose feedback is expected during September[2].

The Forum was formed upon the recommendation deriving from the Commission’s Communication on tackling online disinformation published in April 2018, building on the work of the High-Level Expert Group on Fake News and Disinformation convened by DG CONNECT in January 2018.

“The legitimate online ecosystem provides an infrastructure that can be misused by bad actors to deceive and confuse citizens, making it more difficult for them to make fact-based judgments, and ultimately undermining our democracies,” said Townsend Feehan, IAB Europe CEO. “The same ecosystem is also a powerful platform for the democratic dissemination of information and views. All stakeholders need to work together to reduce the opportunities for misuse. We are pleased to have had the opportunity to participate in this exercise under the leadership of DG CONNECT.”

Though all manifestations of online disinformation do not leverage, or relate to, advertising, it is important to acknowledge the real-life scenarios where digital advertising may facilitate the creation and propagation of disinformation, for example, by inadvertently enabling the placing of legitimate advertising on websites enabling disinformation. “IAB Europe members are committed to continuing to invest in brand safety tools that reduce or eliminate such ad misplacement, because it is the right thing to do and is in the best interest of the brands involved”, said Feehan.

IAB Europe encourages continued EU-level investment in research to better understand the scope and nature of online disinformation, and in consumer education, notably in the area of media literacy, to increase people’s ability critically to assess information they receive.

We are looking forward to hearing the Sounding Board’s views on the draft Code, and to continuing to collaborate with others across the ecosystem on this major challenge.

Contact

Greg Mroczkowski, Public Policy Manager at IAB Europe (mroczkowski@iabeurope.eu, +32 4830 58 203)

About IAB Europe

IAB Europe is the leading European-level industry association for the digital media and advertising industry. Its mission is to promote the development of this innovative sector and ensure its sustainability by shaping the regulatory environment, demonstrating the value digital advertising brings to Europe’s economy, to consumers and to the market, and developing and facilitating the uptake of harmonised business practices that take account of changing user expectations and enable digital brand advertising to scale in Europe.

[1] Working Group comprises of the following members:  Google, Facebook, Twitter, Mozilla, EDIMA, EASA, WFA, AIM, IAB Europe, EACA.

[2] Sounding Board comprises of the following members: EBU, EFJ, NME, ACT, EPC, AER, EMMA, ENPA, BEUC, IFCN, Poynter, Bilyana Petkova (Maastricht University), Oreste Pollicino (Bocconi University), Giovanni Riotta (LUISS/Princeton University), Ravi Kiran Vatrapu (Copenhagen Business School).

On 25 June, IAB Europe became a signatory to the Memorandum of Understanding on Online Advertising and IP Infringement (“the MoU” or “the Memorandum”). I feel privileged that I was able to sign not just on behalf of IAB Europe, but also four of our national associations (IAB UK, IAB Italy, IAB Poland, and IAB Slovakia). Several IAB Europe corporate members will also be signatories to the Memorandum – and a majority of the members involved were in favour of IAB Europe’s support for it.

The MoU has the goal of reducing the placement of advertising on websites which blatantly infringe copyright or sell counterfeit goods on a commercial scale. The hope is that by reducing the viability of online advertising as a source of revenue for these sites, there will be less commercial incentive for hosting copyright infringing content. From an advertiser’s point of view, it’s also important that their brand image is not damaged by appearing on the wrong types of website. This is nothing new, and advertisers have already been protecting their brands with the use of brand safety tools.

Thus, there are both regulatory and commercial incentives for making this MoU a success – so how do we get there? As this blog’s title suggests – this is not the end of the process, despite years of negotiations on the text – this is the beginning. The MoU’s first 12 months will be an assessment period, during which time the European Commission will undertake to commission independent studies into the existence of advertising on commercial-scale IP infringing sites. At the same time, signatories to the MoU will be checking in quarterly to demonstrate the measures they’ve taken to limit ads appearing on infringing sites, and how effective they estimate them.

As a trade association, our role will be to educate our members on the importance of the MoU and to encourage adoption after the assessment period. IAB Europe’s members who are interested in signing on after the assessment period are also able to join our delegation to the quarterly meetings – and action can always be undertaken on an individual basis. We are looking forward to getting started and seeing some positive results!

Download the Memorandum of Understanding below.

The signatories to the paper are aware of the fake news and online disinformation phenomena and are highly concerned by the issue. Since online advertising is the main source of revenue for the diverse media landscape in Europe[1], the stakeholders reaffirm their industry-wide commitment to work towards ensuring that we support quality journalism and cutting off the financial incentives to fake news providers.

The letter comes as part of IAB Europe’s response to the European Commission’s public consultation. The Commission is expected to publish its EU-level strategy regarding this issue in spring 2018.

Read and download the full paper HERE.

[1]IHS Markit, The Economic Contribution of Digital Advertising in Europe (2017), available at: https://datadrivenadvertising.eu/wpcontent/uploads/2017/09/DigitalAdvertisingEconomicContribution_FINAL-1.pdf. The latest research shows that this revenue source makes up more than 81% of the online revenues for publisher’s journalistic content and more than 50% of mobile application revenues.

The analyses carried out by the research company IHS Market validate the economic contribution that digital advertising as a whole makes to the EU, as well as define the role of data in digital advertising and how data is fundamentally transforming the mechanisms and procedures that underpin the digital advertising.

The studies were unveiled in the context of the proposed ePrivacy Regulation, which in its current form would restrict data-driven advertising and have serious and unintended consequences for the EU economy, and for Europe’s independent media relaying in particular on data-driven advertising as a primary revenue source. The research shows that data-driven advertising makes up over 81% of European news publishers revenue, and 62% of mobile app revenues. Moreover, behaviorally targeted advertising, a form of data-driven advertising, is on average five times more valuable than advertisements that do not draw on such data. This data use further drives virtually all growth in the market where broad economic contribution of digital advertising amounts to €526 billion for the EU28. 

The webinar was presented by Daniel Knapp, PhD, Senior Director, Media & Advertising at IHS Markit. 

Missed the webinar? Watch here.

“The Juncker Commission is continuing to drive a broad and energetic digital regulatory agenda, much of which affects online advertising, whether directly or indirectly”, noted Allan Sørensen, Chairman of IAB Europe’s Policy Committee. “While the EU’s focus on the economic opportunities brought by digital is certainly welcome, launching so many initiatives more or less in parallel means that Member States, companies and consumers do not have time to understand the implications of one set of changes to the rules, before a new set is contemplated.”

“The ink is barely dry on the recently-agreed General Data Protection Regulation – even the data protection authorities say they will need two years to figure out what it all means – yet the Commission has already launched a review of the e-Privacy Directive and predicts a proposal will be adopted by year’s end.  To add to the lack of clarity, a draft Directive on digital contracts amalgamates money and data and introduces new legal concepts that temper with the GDPR.”

“Today’s Communication on online platforms adds to the legislative swirl by placing a set of fundamentally different digital actors – including advertising players – under the aegis of a new EU-level concept of ‘online platform’. Strikingly, platforms of user-generated content are also officially called out in the Proposal on Audiovisual Media Services, which thus far only applied to actors having editorial control over content. This opens the door to additional confusion in the market.”

An optimal single European Digital Market requires clear harmonised rules and the absence of technical barriers. Whether the current regulatory blitz will deliver the culture of innovation and dynamism that EU entrepreneurs and consumers need remains to be seen.

For more information, please contact Townsend Feehan, IAB Europe CEO (feehan@iabeurope.eu) or Allan Sørensen, Policy Committee Chairman (as@danskemedier.dk).

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About IAB Europe

IAB Europe is the leading European-level industry association for the online advertising ecosystem. Its mission is to promote the development of this innovative sector by shaping the regulatory environment, investing in research and education, and developing and facilitating the uptake of business standards. Together with its members – companies and national trade associations – IAB Europe represents over 5,500 organisations.   The online advertising

Industry is estimated to account for over a million jobs in Europe and contribute over EUR 100 billion to European GDP, and acts as an incubator of high-end data analytics and other digital skills that can then be deployed in the wider economy[1]. 

In 2006, the value of the EU market stood at €6.6 billion, versus €36.2 billion in 2015. This is an increase in spend of €30.2 billion and translates into a compound annual growth rate of 20.5%, or an average €3.0 billion per year^[2]. With a year-on-year growth rate of 13.1% in 2015^[3] compared to a 1.8% increase in overall Eurozone GDP^[4], the digital advertising sector continues to outperform the overall EU economy.

Website: www.iabeurope.kinsta.cloud

Twitter: @IABEurope

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[1] Report by IHS, November 2015, "Paving the Way: how online advertising enables the digital economy of the future".

[2] IAB Europe AdEx Benchmark report - the state of online advertising in Europe. 2014.

[3] IAB Europe AdEx Benchmark H1 2015, December 2015.

[4] eurostat

With this consultation, the Commission aims to seek views from a broad range of stakeholders in order to evaluate whether the Directive is still fit for purpose  in the digital environment.

The consultation comes in the backdrop of the Digital Single Market strategy, in which the Commission committed to undertaking a set of targeted actions to foster the cross-border digital economy while ensuring a safe online environment for business operators and consumers.  Among the envisaged actions is the modernisation of IPR enforcement, focusing on commercial-scale infringements (the 'follow the money' approach) and its cross-border applicability.

IAB Europe's response in 6 points:

1. IAB Europe is deeply committed to minimising the misplacement of ads on Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) infringing sites. This commitment is reflected in the recent report on Digital Advertising on Suspected Infringing Websites commissioned by the EU Observatory on Infringements of Intellectual Property Rights.
2. IAB Europe members have been, over the years, extremely proactive in finding adequate solutions to tackle ad misplacement on IPR infringing sites.
3. IAB Europe companies have been developing and implementing cutting-edge technologies to minimise the misplacement of branded ads on IPR infringing sites.
4. National IABs and member companies have also been involved in a number of national-level initiatives to combat ad misplacement on IPR infringing sites. According to data collected by IAB Europe, in the past 2 years, such initiatives have been initiated in at least nine different European countries:the UK, Poland, France, Denmark, Slovakia, Italy, the Netherlands, Austria and Spain.
5. To encourage the convergence of such initiatives at EU level, IAB Europe members have been firmly supporting, for the past 18 months, IAB Europe’s involvement in the Commission’s stakeholder dialogue on "follow the money.
6. IAB Europe members are also committed to providing transparency to clients about the delivery of digital ad campaigns to their intended audience. Within IAB Europe, they are working together to provide the industry with a reliable and trusted framework for the converging digital and traditional media environment and improve quality in digital brand advertising.

For more insights, download the response below.

IAB Europe is the voice of digital business. Its mission is to protect, prove, promote and professionalise Europe's online advertising, media, market research and analytics industries. Together with its members – companies and national trade associations – IAB Europe represents over 5,500 organisations. Advertising is essential to the success of the European digital market. It has a key role in helping fund digital content, services and applications, making them widely available at little or no cost, as well as driving growth in the digital sector.

Digital advertising is a major lever for a successful digital economy. In 2006, the value of the EU market stood at €6.6 billion, versus €30.7 billion in 2014. This is an increase in spend of €24.1 billion and translates into a compound annual growth rate of 21.2%, or an average €3.0 billion per year. With a growth rate of 11.8% in 2014 compared to a 1.3% increase in overall EU GDP, the digital advertising sector continues to outperform the overall EU economy .

IAB Europe welcomes the Commission’s initiative and aim to make Europe's audiovisual media landscape fit for purpose in the digital age. Such an initiative must pursue the joint objectives of serving European consumers as well as supporting the development of the digital economy and new business models.

IAB Europe is limiting its response to questions that contain aspects which could bring opportunities or pose challenges to the European online sector and online advertising industries.

Download IAB Europe’s response to the consultation.