Three months after the entry into force of the Digital Services Acts, IAB Europe and IAB Tech Lab would like to understand how industry players are leveraging the DSA Transparency OpenRTB extension intended to facilitate compliance with Article 26, which issues they may be experiencing, and where they need more support. Your valuable input will only take a few minutes to share and will be kept strictly confidential.

The survey is open for your participation until Friday 21st June 2024. 

Take part here

Brussels, 17th January, 2023 - IAB Europe, representing a diverse membership of digital marketing, digital advertising, and media companies, has communicated its strong concerns to Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) regarding the draft report on the GDPR procedural regulation by the Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs (LIBE) Committee.

The draft report, if implemented in its current form, falls short of the initial ambitions to harmonise procedural rules, which could hinder a consistent and fair GDPR cross-border complaints process for all organisations. In the letter sent today, IAB Europe encourages Members of the European Parliament to consider six key recommendations to address these concerns. These include keeping the administrative nature of cross-border complaints; respecting the GDPR governance model; enabling early resolution; respecting the confidentiality of business information; harmonising the defendant's right to be heard; and including flexible time limits for the defendant's views.  

In the letter to MEPs, IAB Europe underscores the importance of addressing these concerns to harmonise and streamline GDPR procedural rules in cross-border cases, ensuring a fair, predictable, and efficient resolution process. The full letter can be seen below and accessed here.

Dear Member of the European Parliament, 

IAB Europe, representing a diverse membership of digital marketing, digital advertising and media companies, would like to express their strong concerns to the draft report on the GDPR procedural regulation by the Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs (LIBE) Committee. If implemented as it is, the draft report will fall short of the initial ambitions to harmonise procedural rules, and ensure that the GDPR complaints process is consistent, predictable and fair for all organisations and results in simple, fast and efficient resolution for consumers.  

As the LIBE Committee is looking to agree on a common position on the GDPR procedural regulation, IAB Europe encourages MEPs to consider the recommendations below. 

1. Cross-border complaints should remain an administrative procedure

The new rights of ‘equality of arms’ and ‘to be heard’ for complainants, introduced by the draft report, increase the risk of turning what has been an administrative procedure into an adversarial one instead. While the draft report proposes to align some of the procedural protections to “all parties”, it also reinforces the rights of the complainants while at the same time hollowing out some of the procedural protections proposed in the initial draft to the investigated parties. The combination of all these proposals makes the draft report imbalanced leading to a flagrant absence of the rights of defence for any investigated party.

This approach will slow down the process to the detriment of all parties and will fall short of the initial ambition of the legislation to make the cross-border complaints process more consistent, swift and efficient. This will also undermine the independence of Lead Supervisory Authorities (LSA) as enshrined in the GDPR.

2. The legislation must respect the existing GDPR governance model

The draft report provides the EDPB with new powers to weigh in on disputes regarding procedural issues and to carry out factual investigations under the dispute resolution procedure. It also allows the EDPB to adopt binding decisions under the urgency procedure, which would be applicable to all member states. These proposals are in direct conflict with the role and authority of the LSA under articles 56 and 60 of the GDPR and this cannot be supplanted. We urge the co-legislators to reject these proposals which could further undermine the GDPR’s cornerstone one-stop-shop mechanism by redistributing decision-making and administrative competence from the LSA to the EDPB.

3. The defendant’s right to be heard should be harmonised across Europe

The European Commission’s proposal sets out clear opportunities for the defendant to express their views during the administrative procedure. However, the LIBE draft report, which would give a right to be heard to parties ‘before any measure is taken that would adversely affect’ the parties, is unclear. The text also allows supervisory authorities to limit this right to be heard under their national procedural law. Potential restrictions on the right to be heard at national level and vague concepts, such as “adversely affect”, will create legal uncertainty and increase the risk of diverging interpretation and application across member states. IAB Europe urges the colegislators to respect the defendant’s right to be heard as a fundamental right to defence during clearly defined stages in the process, to ensure a fair, predictable and harmonised procedure. Furthermore, the proposed deletion of Article 24 would remove a key requirement for parties to be heard before the European Data Protection Board (EDPB). 

4. Defendants should be able to effectively exercise their right to be heard 

The draft report requires the supervisory authorities to set “reasonable” time limits for providing views, which should not exceed four weeks. While the introduction of “reasonable” time limits is very welcome, we advise against a strict deadline, which will not be flexible enough to accommodate complex cases. Time limits should be proportionate depending on the complexity of each case. This is key to ensure that defendants have enough time to share their views, especially when the case is complex.

5. Business information confidentiality is key to ensure the integrity of the administrative procedure

The draft report deletes all measures from the Commission proposal to protect defendants’ confidential information. In particular, the text grants complainants full access to all documents about the case except ‘internal deliberations’. It also removes the provision that would prevent complainants from using the preliminary findings for purposes other than the concrete investigation. 

These proposals would increase the risk of media leaks, which could influence the decisions from supervisory authorities, and therefore undermine their independence and the overall integrity of the administrative procedure. We urge the co-legislators to respect current practices regarding defendants’ confidentiality and ensure, as far as possible, the effectiveness of sanction mechanisms across Europe in case of confidentiality breaches.  

6. The regulation should enable all forms of early resolution 

The draft report increases transparency and opportunities for organisations to receive complaints at an early stage in the process and directly resolve them. This is very welcome. However, the report proposes stricter conditions for the parties to settle unresolved cases via the amicable resolution process. In cases where the organisation and the complainant agree, the text would require the supervisory authority to launch its own investigation under broad and vague conditions and with no clear threshold for initiating the investigation. This proposal introduces uncertainty and unpredictability and could result in arbitrary decisions. We urge the co-legislators to remove these barriers to the use of amicable settlements in non-contentious cases that do not pose systemic threats to EU citizens’ fundamental rights. This approach would ensure that LSAs focus their resources on the most pressing and egregious cases.

Thank you for considering these concerns and taking the arguments mentioned above into account, in order to harmonise and streamline GDPR procedural rules in cross-border cases. 

Sincerely, 

IAB Europe

Important Note: The Implementation deadline of TCF v2.have been moved from September 30th 2023 to November 20th 2023. More information here

In order to respond to the changes and needs of the market, while continuing to help players in the online ecosystem comply with certain requirements of the ePrivacy Directive and the General Data Protection Regulation (“GDPR”), the Transparency and Consent Framework (“TCF”, “Framework”) needs to be updated on a regular basis. In particular, constant evolutions in case law as well as in guidelines of Data Protection Authorities (DPAs) place ever higher demands on market participants in terms of data protection requirements. The TCF instances have therefore drawn inspiration from them to bring new iterations to the Framework. In addition, some changes are related to the Action Plan submitted to and validated by the Belgian Data Protection Authority (more information here).

IAB Europe, in partnership with IAB Tech Lab, is committed to continuous improvement and development of the Framework through industry collaboration to meet the needs of users and regulators. The iterations brought by the TCF v2.2 aim to bring further standardisation of the information and choices that should be provided to users over the processing of their personal data, and to how these choices should be captured, communicated and respected.

TCF v2.2 will be launched mid-May and TCF participants will have until the end of Q3 2023 to make the necessary changes to their respective implementations. All iterations have been developed to avoid breaking changes to the existing v2.1 Technical Specifications and facilitate their adoption in a timely manner by CMPs and Vendors.

To help the market anticipate these upcoming changes, this article provides an overview of the different amendments to the TCF Policies and Technical Specifications. In the run up to the launch of TCF v2.2, IAB Europe is hosting a series of webinars to offer full support and guidance to CMPs, Vendors and Publishers. Recording of previous webinars can be found at the end of this blogpost.  

1) Removal of the Legitimate Interest Legal Basis for Advertising & Content Personalisation 

The current version of the TCF Policies allows the use of legitimate interest or consent to carry out data processing operations for Purposes 3 (Create a personalised ads profile), 4 (Select personalised ads), 5 (Create a personalised content profile) and 6 (Select personalised content). The TCF Policies will be amended to remove “legitimate interest” as an acceptable legal basis for these Purposes. As a consequence, within the scope of the TCF, Vendors will only be able to select consent as an acceptable legal basis for these Purposes at registration level. 

2) Improvements to the Information Currently Provided to Users in CMP UIs

• New user-facing standard texts

The Purpose names and descriptions will change. CMPs will be required to present improved user-friendly descriptions, replacing the current user-friendly text as well as the (currently) mandatory legal text. CMPs will also be required to make available illustrations based on real-use cases, which aim to explain to users how TCF Participants’ data processing operations relate to the Purposes.

• Introduction of new Features of processing to further explain possible means of processing 

In order to improve transparency over the means of processing used by Vendors in support of the TCF purposes, Vendors will be able to declare additional features at registration level. 

3) Standardisation of the Additional Information About Vendors Provided to Users in the Secondary Layers of CMP UIs

To provide greater transparency, Vendors will now be required to provide additional information about their data processing operation at registration level - so that this information can in turn be disclosed by CMP to end-users in secondary layers UIs.

• Standardisation of the categories of data collected and processed by Vendors 

The new TCF Policies will include a standard taxonomy of categories of data, from which a Vendor can select from at registration level. The Policies will include a new UI requirement for CMPs to disclose for each Vendor the categories of data collected and processed.  

• Standardisation of Vendors’ data retention periods 

Vendors will be able to declare, at the time of registration, how long (in days) they keep data for each declared purpose. Accordingly, the new TCF Policies will include a new UI requirement for CMPs to disclose for each Vendor how long they keep data to achieve each declared purpose.

• Legitimate interests at stake

Vendors will be required to declare what their legitimate interests at stake are, by providing at the registration level a dedicated URL where with this information can be found (e.g. a bookmark of their existing privacy policy). The amendment to the Policies will require CMPs to make this information available to users through the secondary layers of their UI. 

• Possibility to direct users to Vendors’ privacy documentation in multiple languages

Vendors will be able to declare during registration differentiated URLs to their privacy policy or legitimate interest statement for each TCF-supported language, where available. Publishers and their CMPs will have the option as a result to direct users to Vendors’ privacy documentation in the relevant language to improve transparency for users. 

4) Greater Transparency for Users About the Number of Vendors

CMPs will be required to disclose on the first layer of the CMP UI the number of third-party Vendors that are seeking consent or pursue data processing purposes on the basis of their legitimate interests. The TCF Policies do not impose any specific maximum number of Vendors, but Publishers are strongly encouraged to ensure that they only work with Vendors that are (most) relevant to them. The TCF Policies will include a warning that an unjustifiably large number of Vendors may impact users’ ability to make informed choices and increase Publisher and Vendor legal risk. 

To assist Publishers in the process of selecting the Vendors for which they establish transparency & consent, an additional Vendor Information List has been published (“B2B GVL”). It contains information that can make it easier for a Publisher to determine which Vendors are relevant for it. Information contained in the B2B GVL can be used by Publishers to, for example, avoid requesting user’s consent for Vendors that operate in technical environments and jurisdictions that are not relevant to their online services, as well as generally better understand each TCF Vendor’s scope of operations and whether it transfers data outside of the EEA. 

5) More Specific Requirements to Facilitate Users’ Withdrawal of their Consent

Publishers and their CMPs will be required to ensure that users can re-access the CMP UI easily to manage their choices (e.g. from a floating icon or a footer link available on each webpage, or from the top-level setting of the app).

If the initial consent request presented to users contains a call to action that enables user to consent to all purposes and vendors in one click (such as “Consent to all”), an equivalent call to action should be provided when users re-access the CMP UI to withdraw consent to all purposes and vendors in one click (such as “Withdraw consent to all”). 

Additionally, the TCF Technical Specifications will mandate Vendors (rather than only recommending) to use event listeners to ensure that any changes to TC Strings are proactively communicated to them and other Vendors. In the web environment, Vendors with access to Javascript will be required to register an event listener function (addEventListener) instead of using the getTCData command of the TCF API. In the app environment, Vendors must listen to IABTCF_* key updates to retrieve TC Strings from NSUserDefaults (iOS) or SharedPreferences (Android). 

6) Enhanced TCF Compliance Programmes

Since 2019, IAB Europe has developed Compliance Programmes to verify compliance of TCF Participants with the Policies and Technical Specifications. These programmes will be expanded, with new auditing mechanisms and differentiated enforcement procedures. 

All auditing mechanisms and verifications susceptible to be performed in the context of the TCF Compliance Programme will be described and published in a public Control Catalogue, to help TCF participants in assessing and reviewing the compliance of their TCF implementations. In addition to the Control Catalogue, IAB Europe will release a new version of the CMP Validator Chrome Extension that will be publicly available.

IAB Europe will increase the volume of proactive auditing of CMPs and Vendors that will be randomly selected each month, and will also act upon reports of non-compliance from the market or from end-users by making available a dedicated form to submit a complaint.

Vendors and CMPs will be subject to differentiated procedure according to the nature of the non-compliance. In particular, any tampering with or falsification of TC String will result in immediate suspension from the Framework for a minimum of four weeks, and will be notified publicly. 

7) Reminder: Revocation of the consensu.org Subdomains 

Support for Global-scope was deprecated in June 2021 due to negligible use by Publishers (less than 0,5%) and compliance considerations. The deprecation required CMPs to delete all existing euconsent-v2 cookies associated with the consensu.org domain. IAB Europe will now remove all consensu.org subdomain delegations to CMPs’ nameservers (which had previously been provided upon registration). As a result, CMPs will no longer be able to host their scripts on their consensu.org subdomain, and this in turn technically prevents them from setting and accessing cookies on the consensu.org domain.

CMPs currently hosting their scripts on their consensu.org subdomains will need to host them on a different domain. Their Publisher clients will need to redeploy a new script on their digital properties before July 10th (see notification here). 

How Should TCF Participants Prepare ?

• Vendors will be required to review and update their TCF registration, by providing additional information about their data processing operations covered by their implementation of the Framework. Moreover, they will be required to verify that they have properly implemented the use of the event listeners to retrieve users’ choices in real-time, where applicable. 
• CMPs will need to read a new version of the Global Vendor List that contains additional information about Vendors, in order to build improved CMP UIs. They will be required to ensure that all the new disclosures are implemented in their live installations. CMPs should also make sure that users can easily withdraw consent when they resurface the CMP UI. 
• Publishers are strongly encouraged to review the subset of Vendors for which they establish transparency and consent, notably by using the information provided in the B2B GVL. They also need to ensure that the CMP deployed on their properties can be easily resurfaced by users (e.g. at the bottom of webpages, through floating icons). 

Changes to the TCF Technical Specifications

The changes to the TCF technical specifications are open for public comment until May 12th, 2023 and can be found here. Comments may be submitted via email to transparencyframework@iabtechlab.com. The technical changes included in TCF v2.2 are also outlined in IAB Tech Lab's blog post here.

Support Workshops for TCF Participants

Hosted in 1 hour-long webinar formats, TCF experts went through everything that is needed to fully implement TCF v2.2. All webinars featured Q&A sessions and have been recorded.

[Video Recordings]

Session 1: Overview of the main differences between the TCF policies 3.5 & 4.0

An overview of the main differences in policies between v2.1 & v2.2. This session is for all TCF stakeholders. Watch the recording here. 

Session 2: Overview of the changes to the TCF technical specifications between v2.1 & v2.2

An overview of the changes to the TCF technical specifications between v2.1 & v2.2. This session is to help CMPs and Vendors navigate the different technical resources. Watch the recording here. 

Vendors

Webinar recording to give an overview of the changes for Vendors implementing the TCF can be watched here and the presentation deck can be downloaded here. 

CMPs

Webinar recording to give an overview of the changes for CMPs implementing the TCF can be watched here and the presentation deck can be downloaded here. 

Publishers

Webinar recording to give an overview of the changes for Publishers implementing the TCF can be watched here and the presentation deck can be downloaded here.

In order to respond to the changes and needs of the market, while continuing to help players in the online ecosystem comply with certain requirements of the ePrivacy Directive and the General Data Protection Regulation (“GDPR”), the Transparency and Consent Framework needs to be updated on a regular basis. In particular, constant evolutions in case law as well as in guidelines of Data Protection Authorities (DPAs) place ever higher demands on market participants in terms of data protection requirements. The TCF instances have therefore drawn inspiration from them to bring some new iterations to the Framework, including some changes related to the Action Plan that was submitted to and validated by the Belgian Data Protection Authority (more information here). 

These new iterations will be released as part of the Transparency & Consent Framework v2.2 in the next few weeks, and TCF participants will have until the end of Q3 2023 to make the necessary changes to their respective implementations. All iterations have been developed to avoid breaking changes to the existing v2.1 Technical Specifications and facilitate adoption in a timely manner by CMPs and Vendors.

In the run up to the launch of TCF v2.2, IAB Europe will publish background material and host a series of webinars to offer full support and guidance to CMPs, Vendors and Publishers. Registration links can be found below.

Session 1: Overview of the main differences between the TCF policy 3.5 & 4.0

Thursday 20th April| 15:00 CET  – Register here

An overview of the main differences in policies between v2.1 & v2.2. This session is for all TCF stakeholders.

Speakers

• Christoph Zippel, Senior Legal Counsel, RTL
• Elena Turtureanu, VP Legal and Privacy, Adform
• Jan Winkler, CEO, Consentmanager
• Peter Craddock, Partner, Keller and Heckman LLP

Register Here 

Session 2: Overview of the changes to the TCF technical specifications between v2.1 & v2.2

Thursday 20th April| 16:00 CET  – Register here

An overview of the changes to the TCF technical specifications between v2.1 & v2.2. This session is to help CMPs and Vendors navigate the different technical resources.

Speakers

• Heinz Baumann, Product & Engineering consultant, IAB Europe
• Julien Delhommeau, Staff System Architect, Microsoft
• Rowena Lam, Sr Director of Product, Privacy and Data, IAB Techlab
• Ninon Vagner, Privacy Director, IAB Europe

Register here

What will 2023 have in store for the programmatic industry?

Nick Welch, Head of Programmatic, EMEA at IAS and Chair of IAB Europe’s Programmatic Trading Committee - As businesses look at their ad budgets with greater scrutiny in the midst of economic uncertainty, so will marketers look to extract the maximum value from their media spend in 2023. A concerning macroeconomic picture can hit budgets hard, so there will be an increased focus on solutions that maximise the balance between efficiency and outcomes whilst respecting the privacy of consumers. According to a Statista study in 2021, 46.6% of consumers ‘strongly disagreed’ with the statement that they consented to cookies. With the advancements in privacy compliant technology including contextual targeting, and an increasing interest in consumer attention, these areas will be more and more appealing for programmatic advertisers. Marketers who can understand and capitalise on the interplay between quality media, contextual and real ROI will navigate economic headwinds and even turn them into tailwinds.

Ben Geach, Consultancy Lead at Google - Through 2022, the industry has heard loud and clear that as consumers manage more & more of their life online, their expectations of privacy have also increased. The time for brands to demonstrate ‘trust’ is now & advertising must go beyond the basics and what’s legally required to exceed people’s expectations around data privacy. Into 2023, I see European brands recognising strong privacy practices build brand loyalty & make a real difference to engaging with their customer base - perhaps with the adoption of the ‘3M’ approach - meaningful (demonstrating what users get in return for sharing data), memorable (remind users what data is shared & when) & manageable (provide simple tools to manage your data).

Wayne Tassie, Group Director, Integrated Solutions, DoubleVerify - In 2023, we will see further diversification of revenue across programmatic. As budgets remain cautious due to economic uncertainty, brands and investment teams may continue to pull back from historic 'Big Tech' investment in favour of precision-based, performance enhancing, sustainable programmatic technologies and algorithms. As a result, there will be a greater focus on innovation across the industry. For instance, attention - offering insights into metrics like exposure and engagement, encompassing audibility, quartile completion, screen touches, screen real estate and more - will increasingly replace viewability. Having this intel will be crucial for brands to optimise ad campaigns moving forward. Attention metrics will make great strides next year as a mid-funnel solution that will fuel the halo effect feeding into lower-funnel programmatic attribution. Privacy regulations and the deprecation of cookies will undoubtedly accelerate the shift towards attention as the industry’s new currency. However, the shift isn’t only reactive but grows out of verification solutions. Advances in verification have improved transparency and measurement, in turn improving the baseline for media quality. Once quality has been established, measuring attention is the next step in understanding how campaigns will perform - helping to not only optimise, but protect media buys.

John Wittesaele, Global CEO at Xaxis - The advertising industry will see multichannel campaigns evolve as advertisers unlock true omnichannel capabilities. Whereas multichannel lets buyers reach consumers across screens, omnichannel strategies fill in the missing links between screens and platforms so that advertisers can purchase inventory, make in-flight optimisations, and measure performance in a unified way. This means advertisers can effectively frequency cap their campaigns across channels to reduce wastage and maximise their ad budgets, while also improving relevance for audiences. Omnichannel capabilities let advertisers fluidly adjust which channels they direct their budget towards in real time, boosting efficiency and supporting a test-and-learn mindset. Advertisers can then invest in the channel mix that best delivers against their objectives, ensuring all components of a campaign work together to exceed the sum of their parts.

Krzysztof Lis, Partnerships & Consultancy Expert, Yieldbird) - We expect further increase of demand for every non-standard ad formats, which exceed the standard, flat display ad formats. This trend is much stronger than in previous years and includes formats like "page takeover", intrusive display creatives and audio ads. In terms of transaction types, we expect that the demand for private auctions is going to decrease, and expect the campaigns to be moved to preferred and programmatic guaranteed deals, but also to the open exchange. In terms of the inventory availability, we see that more and more publishers start selling their impressions on the programmatic market and expect to generate additional revenue this way. However, due to the increased competition for the campaigns, simply being present there would not be enough, and the publishers must offer some unique, incremental value for advertisers, which is not available there.  

Amanda Cohrs, Global Head of Programmatic Consultancy, ShowHeroes - With the growing diversity of formats and solutions in Connected TV, Audio, DooH, and InGame, it is expected that composite approaches are needed to meet audience’s cross channel. Together with this omnichannel approach, it’s fundamental that technical standards and clear guidelines must be established and implemented across the board. Reaching audiences in a privacy-safe way has already brought alternative identifier solutions front and center on the adtech side, while contextual solutions are now becoming more attractive and necessary pieces to the cookieless puzzle for buyers and sellers. And last but not least, sustainability is no longer a “nice to have”. Sustainable practices are becoming interwoven in every major component of advertising and how digital media companies are evolving their business.

Ionut Ciobotaru, Chief Product Officer (co-CEO), Verve Group - If 2022 pushed horizons on consolidation and efficiency, then 2023 will be focused more on performance and holistic measurement.  We believe that publishers will be looking for more controls and ways to increase the value of their inventory through seller-defined audiences, cohorts and enhanced creative units. We're expecting privacy enabling tech to grow from the toddler stage to a child, with greater focus on what Privacy Sandbox, Interoperable Private Attribution and others have to offer, and that there will be clear winners (and losers) as it relates to efforts such as universal identifiers. Lastly, we see performance and measurement being a big opportunity for CTV to become more widely utilized. Proving its value be hooks for largest digital screen in the household to continue to gain traction.

Piper Heitzler, Head of Growth, EMEA, Amobee - Over the past 3-5 years it was easy to categorise industry players into 4 quadrants, with "Linear" and "Digital" on the X axis and "Demand" and "Supply" on the Y axis. The peak trends of 2022: SVOD --> AVOD, retail media network proliferation, seller-defined audience strategies, etc illustrate how in 2023 we will see ad tech offerings pull closer to the centrepoint of this matrix – giving buyers and sellers a one-stop shop, end-to-end ecosystem for programmatic buying. With that said, we should gear up for a major year of consolidation as large players look to buy rather than build their own end-to-end stacks focused on delivering self-serve tools to advertisers, agencies, publishers and media owners alike.

David Bauckmann, CTO, ImpressionMedia - With the growing share of CTV, DOOH and programmatic audio advertising, more and more emphasis will be placed on controlling and evaluating these channels from one place in a holistic manner.  At the same time, we expect more and more pressure to optimize the supply chain and the associated increase in all forms of programmatic deals and SPO optimization practices. Closely related to the supply chain issue is the topic of sustainability, which is sure to be highly debated in 2023. But we expect to see concrete steps in optimization more for economic reasons.

Frederic Lutt, VP Client Success, MediaMath - The year 2023 will mark a shift in a few topics that emerged in previous years: CTV buying will become more mainstream than ever in Europe. Previous years have been about building the ecosystem and the proposition on the publisher side. The entry of Netflix & Disney+, and advances from the FAST services like Samsung TV Plus will accelerate the evolution of buying behaviours from linear to connected TV. Measurement will improve. The two buying models will co-exist in 2023 and CTV will need to prove its advantages to the advertising industry. Another important topic for our industry and for the world is sustainability. All players in the programmatic advertising supply chain will need to do more to collectively achieve net zero. “Collectively” is an important word here as we all need to play our part if we want to be successful as an industry. Attention is another topic, which can be linked to sustainability and will rightly gain traction in 2023. Advertisers and their agencies will continue to focus on identity and prepare for a cookieless future. We will continue to talk about the metaverse, but I feel that it will still be too early by the end of 2023 to have a strong offering to advertise in metaverses.  In-gaming advertising will continue to evolve and pave the way for metaverse strategies.

María Ramiro, HUAWEI Ads Head of Business Development Europe - As a Technology Company with innovation as our heart, cutting- edge technologies will contribute to the development of AdTech as to expand into the whole value chain on programmatic advertising. Integrating hardware & software will continue bringing key opportunities for first party data strategies, automation, as well as a more integrated consumer personalized experiences. In an uncertain social & macroeconomic situation, Innovation & Diversification will be key for advertisers and publishers looking for cost- effective solutions.

Austin Scott, Head of Video Marketplace Development. Xandr - Exciting changes have been a staple of this year within the digital video world and I expect to see this continue through 2023. New entrants at local market level are driving the progress and digitalisation of the TV space, while disruption, led by media owners, is contributing to rapid transformations.  As consumer expectations and habits constantly evolve, the phrase ‘content is King’ could not be truer; automation and programmatic technology will become invaluable to marketers’ success.  The flexibility of digital and the number of platforms through which viewers can access content is increasing, meaning brands must work even harder to reach them.  However, the big budgets of studios and the costs of high-quality content creation is competitive. In the current economic climate, creators and viewers alike are looking at ways to cut back on costs.  As such, savvy media owners are looking to advertising as a way to generate revenue for new content and lower costs for their audience.  We are seeing big players lean into new ad supported subscription models to meet consumer demand as an effective way to make their content more accessible for all.  Next year, I anticipate the biggest shift coming through the programmatic buying of Connected TV as broadcasters and media owners lean further into this offering recognising its’ benefits of supporting effective ad targeting and frequency management across premium environments. 

Augustin Decré, Managing Director - Southern Europe, Index Exchange - Evolving economic concerns have wide-ranging implications for the future of our industry, but the good news is that there are still bright spots and significant opportunities ahead. One of the largest opportunities still lies in consumer trust, and how we’ll come together as an industry to build mechanisms allowing consumers to be confident while navigating the web. In today’s increasingly digital world, there’s an ongoing movement to give consumers more transparency and control over their personal data. We’ve seen this play out over the last decade, with rapid developments to phase out the third-party cookie. Luckily, tech platforms can move with greater speed than governments and can have a more decisive impact in innovating to solve the root issues in privacy and advertising. 2023 will be the year of action, with media owners and marketers leaning into innovation to help perfect alternative solutions and ensure the ecosystem can continue to monetise and reach new audiences no matter the screen. 

2023 buzzword prediction:

Nick Welch, Head of Programmatic, EMEA at IAS and Chair of IAB Europe’s Programmatic Trading Committee - Attention-related

Ben Geach, Consultancy Lead at Google - Privacy By Design

Wayne Tassie, Group Director, Integrated Solutions, DoubleVerify - Technogenesis; relating to the maturity of the programmatic ecosystem and the evolution of its infrastructure to accommodate emerging buying/trading models. 

John Wittesaele, Global CEO at Xaxis - Omnichannel, Fluidity, Flexibility

Krzysztof Lis, Partnerships & Consultancy Expert, Yieldbird) - CTV, DOOH, programmatic guaranteed, content to speech, vCPM, vCPV (viewable Cost-Per-View). 

Amanda Cohrs, Global Head of Programmatic Consultancy, ShowHeroes - ○ Contextual targeting. Supply path transparency. CTV. Audibility. Netflix. Omnichannel. Sustainability. SaaS. OpenPath

Ionut Ciobotaru, Chief Product Officer (co-CEO), Verve Group - Zero-party cookies. "Sustainabull"--the idea that ad-tech companies are creating sustainable efforts that are either not measurable or merely headlines for press releases. "Ad-tech immersion"--going deep to know the utilization of one's ad-tech experiences.

Piper Heitzler, Head of Growth, EMEA, Amobee - Vertical integration: owning every step of the content creation, distribution and monetisation workflow.

David Bauckmann, CTO, ImpressionMedia - Supply chain / Supply path. Sustainability. CTV. Holistic 

Frederic Lutt, VP Client Success, MediaMath - Metaverse. Sustainability & Attention. CTV

María Ramiro, HUAWEI Ads Head of Business Development Europe - On one side, some keywords that we have been hearing, will still be trending: “Quality Traffic & brand safety”, “Identity” (First Party Data, Contextual targeting, and others), “Omnichannel strategies”. On the other side, 5G, AI & Connected Devices development, that will generate new buzzwords such as “cross device advertising”, referring to the possibility to either use the data of the connected devices for a precise targeting strategy, or start delivering ads into new devices such as smartwatches, connected cars, etc. A completely new area that could be subject to pilot cases in the next.

Austin Scott, Head of Video Marketplace Development. Xandr - Carbon conscious media – sustainability is finally earning its place as top of mind, influencing the decision makers like never before.  Consumers are looking to brands to make sustainability a part of their daily lives and are consequently spending more on brands that share their values.  Since technology is one of the largest contributors to carbon emissions, it is even more critical that marketers evaluate their partners. Tech partners are going to be held accountable and an expectation for us all to be ‘carbon conscious’ will be more and more a part of our daily lives. 

Augustin Decré, Managing Director - Southern Europe, Index Exchange - Privacy, CTV, Addressability.

Sum up 2022 in one or two words: 

Nick Welch, Head of Programmatic, EMEA at IAS and Chair of IAB Europe’s Programmatic Trading Committee - Efficiencies and Outcomes

Ben Geach, Consultancy Lead at Google - Innovation through change.

Wayne Tassie, Group Director, Integrated Solutions, DoubleVerify - A mixed-bag.

John Wittesaele, Global CEO at Xaxis - You’re on Mute (Still).

Krzysztof Lis, Partnerships & Consultancy Expert, Yieldbird) - Unpredictability (the war in Ukraine caused a huge increase of impressions, but some advertisers wanted to exclude content related to the war, on the other hand, a lot of publishers wanted to cease cooperation with advertisers that support Russia, also some demand providers wanted to cease cooperation with publishers from Russia). 

Amanda Cohrs, Global Head of Programmatic Consultancy, ShowHeroes - Gaining momentum.

Ionut Ciobotaru, Chief Product Officer (co-CEO), Verve Group - Privacy (Re) Redefined

Piper Heitzler, Head of Growth, EMEA, Amobee - "In-person". It's been great to get everyone out of their homes and back to the office, industry events and live meetings.

Frederic Lutt, VP Client Success, MediaMath - New Reality.

María Ramiro, HUAWEI Ads Head of Business Development Europe - Saturation & Diversification.

Austin Scott, Head of Video Marketplace Development. Xandr - “What a ride!” 2022 was a great year for programmatic as the kinetic energy that had been building up all through 2020/2021 came into the mainstream. Programmers and broadcasters launched private marketplaces, FAST apps and new digital offerings focused on automation. However, emerging from a pandemic and with current world events having such huge impacts on consumers' lives, from ongoing situations in Ukraine and Iran to the cost of living crisis, we need to adapt our focus to keep pace with what’s important for the end consumer. Amidst financial uncertainty, advertisers will need to consider more than just basic sales figures as measurement for success. For the first year ‘post-pandemic’ we had a lot to do, but really the changes have only just begun and I’m curious to see what innovation and long-standing transformation comes out of this as a result.  One thing is certain though, the TV revolution will be televised.

Augustin Decré, Managing Director - Southern Europe, Index Exchange - Innovation - economic uncertainty, will drive new thinking and further developments in our industry

Want to know how one CMP has successfully implemented v2.0 of the Transparency & Consent Framework (TCF)? Then read our Q&A with Matthias Matthiesen, Senior Privacy Counsel from Quantcast, an audience intelligence and measurement company. Combining machine learning, a privacy-by-design approach, and live data drawn from more than 100 million online destinations, Quantcast provides software, information and advertising services for marketers, publishers and advertising agencies worldwide.

What has been Quantcast’s role in the TCF?

Quantcast has been involved in the creation of the TCF from the very beginning, since before TCF had its name. Later, we were one of the driving forces behind the solution, and one of the first companies to provide engineering and product resources to IAB Europe to help draft the TCF’s original technical specifications. When the TCF was launched, Quantcast was an early adopter and fully integrated as a vendor. Quantcast also began offering one of the first TCF-compliant CMPs, Quantcast Choice, to publishers and advertisers for free. We have continued our leadership in the TCF ever since, including in its first major update to v2.0.

Why should publishers transition to TCF v2.0 CMPs? 

TCF v2.0 is a major overhaul, which enables greater transparency and more granular control for everyone involved. It incorporates feedback from key stakeholders in the industry, including updated guidelines provided by various DPAs. If you want to ensure the CMP on your site is updated to the latest guidelines by DPAs and provides you with the most flexibility and controls, then you should start the transition to a TCF v2.0 CMP now.

What advice would you give to publishers who are concerned about the required work to make the transition?

You’re not on your own when upgrading to TCF v2.0. Quantcast Choice is designed to fully integrate with TCF v2.0, including all updates. We’ve worked diligently to test and refine an interface that presents the clearest message to end users, while following the requirements. For more information, you can visit quantcast.com/choice.

When did you start planning your TCF v2.0 switch over?

Quantcast started planning our TCF v2.0 switch over when the final specifications and policies were released in Q3 2019. We are on target to be fully integrated with TCF v2.0 by the time it launches at the end of Q1 2020. Quantcast Choice will support TCF v2.0 for our customers beginning April 1 and following the IAB’s switchover timeline.

Which teams should be involved in the switchover? 

Implementing TCF v2.0 is a project that requires a cross-functional group of teams spanning multiple product and engineering teams, as well as an organization’s legal team. We recommend publishers and vendors start cross-functional collaboration early.

How long does the transition process take? 

All in all, to complete the initial integration required to update to TCF v2.0 has taken Quantcast about six months. That is not to say that the work is done. Quantcast Choice will continue to evolve with focus on ease of use for our customers in an ever-changing privacy and regulatory landscape.

For publishers and vendors, the process will vary depending on resources, existing integrations with TCF v1.1, and any additional custom integrations. While it has taken us, as the CMP provider, six months, the integration work that needs to be done by a publisher can be as fast as 15 minutes if they have expert knowledge on TCF and plan to use Quantcast’s default set-up. Then the only work they would need to do is to set-up their site and put up a Choice v2.0 tag. Since TCF v2.0 is an overhaul and the signal is not backwards compatible, we recommend estimating time and effort based on your TCF v1.1 implementation process.

What are your top three pieces of advice about switching over to TCF v2.0?

• Involve your legal team early in the process. Understanding the policy and your company’s position are key components of the upgrade process.
• Start conversations with your vendors now. The TCF works because it’s the most adopted standard for the entire industry. To make the transition to v2.0 seamless, we need to make sure everyone is aware of and plans for the switchover.
• Make sure your CMP is IAB Europe-certified and compliant and to use your CMP’s TCF mode if it isn’t on by default. While the set-up for some CMPs is considered complicated, it’s worth the effort during implementation to ensure your CMP will be sending a TCF signal at all times and review the vendor set-up within the CMP.

At the end of Q2 2020, TCF v1.0 will no longer operate. This is the official deadline for all registered TCF vendors and CMPs to be signed up to and operating TCF v2.0.

Support Workshops for the Switchover to TCF v2.0

In the run up to the switch over deadline, IAB Europe has been running a series of workshops to offer full support and guidance to CMPs and Vendors. Presented by IAB Europe and IAB Tech Lab team members, they also feature insights and learnings from TCF Steering Group members.

Workshop 9 Recording & Slides - If You Don't Ask, You Don't Get! Q&A for CMPs

The final webinars in the TCF v2.0 switchover series were dedicated Q&A sessions. With thanks to key members of the TCF Steering Group featuring policy and technical experts, CMPs had the opportunity to ask questions relating to the switchover.

There were no slides for this session, just lots of questions! You can watch the recording here.

Want to catch up on the full series of workshop webinars? All recordings can be found here.

At the end of Q2 2020, TCF v1.0 will no longer operate. This is the official deadline for all registered TCF vendors and CMPs to be signed up to and operating TCF v2.0.

Support Workshops for the Switchover to TCF v2.0

In the run up to the switch over deadline, IAB Europe has been running a series of workshops to offer full support and guidance to CMPs and Vendors. Presented by IAB Europe and IAB Tech Lab team members, they also feature insights and learnings from TCF Steering Group members. Full details of the workshops can be found here.

Workshop 7 Recording and Presentation

Held on the 25th February, this webinar is an introduction to the CMP validation process for TCF v2.0. Presented by Patrick Verdon, IAB Europe's Technical Director, he explains the compliance process and does a demo of the validator. You can see the slides here and watch the recording here.

At the end of Q2 2020, TCF v1.0 will no longer operate. This is the official deadline for all registered TCF vendors and CMPs to be signed up to and operating TCF v2.0.

Support Workshops for the Switchover to TCF v2.0

In the run up to the switch over deadline, IAB Europe has been running a series of workshops to offer full support and guidance to CMPs and Vendors. Presented by IAB Europe and IAB Tech Lab team members, they also feature insights and learnings from TCF Steering Group members. Full details of the workshops can be found here.

Workshop 6 Recording and Presentation

Held on the 13th February, this webinar looks at the do's and don'ts of technical implementation of TCF v2.0 for vendors. Presented by Jan Winkler - CEO AdSpirit and Lon Pilot - VP of Engineering Global at GroupM , you can see the slides here and watch the recording here.

At the end of Q2 2020, TCF v1.0 will no longer operate. This is the official deadline for all registered TCF vendors and CMPs to be signed up to and operating TCF v2.0.

Support Workshops for the Switchover to TCF v2.0

In the run up to the switch over deadline, IAB Europe has been running a series of workshops to offer full support and guidance to CMPs and Vendors. Presented by IAB Europe and IAB Tech Lab team members, they also feature insights and learnings from TCF Steering Group members. Full details of the workshops can be found here.

Workshop 5 Recording and Presentation

Held on the 11th February, this webinar gave an overview of the technical implementation for CMPs. Presented by IAB Europe's Technical Director Patrick Verdon, you can see the slides here and watch the recording here.

IAB Europe, in partnership with IAB Tech Lab, announced on 21 August 2019 the launch of the second iteration of Transparency and Consent Framework (TCF) v2.0. TCF v2.0 continues to support the overall drive of the TCF to increase user transparency and choice, management by digital properties of consent and compliance and industry collaboration that centers on standardisation.

At the end of Q2 2020, TCF v1.0 will no longer operate. This is the official deadline for all registered TCF vendors and CMPs to be signed up to and operating TCF v2.0.

Support Workshops for the Switchover to TCF v2.0

In the run up to the switch over deadline, IAB Europe has been running a series of workshops to offer full support and guidance to CMPs and Vendors. Presented by IAB Europe and IAB Tech Lab team members, they also feature insights and learnings from TCF Steering Group members. Full details of the workshops can be found here.

Workshop 4 Recording and Presentation

Held on the 6th February, this webinar gave an introduction to the different resources and libraries  that have been built to help CMPs and Vendors navigate TCF v2.0. Presented by Chris Paterson, Senior Software Engineer, Conversant and Jill Wittkopp, Director of Product at IAB Tech Lab, you can see the slides here and watch the recording here.

Under TCF v2.0, not only can the user give or withhold consent, but they can also exercise their ‘right to object’ to data being processed on the basis of legitimate interests. It also enables greater transparency for the user, through more detailed and more easily understandable descriptions of the purposes of data processing.   

At the end of Q2 2020, TCF v1.0 will no longer operate. This is the official deadline for all registered TCF vendors and CMPs to be signed up to and operating TCF v2.0. 

On 21 January, IAB Europe hosted a workshop webinar to provide guidance on how the UI should look in TCF v2.0. This session is for all TCF stakeholders.. This 1 hour information session includes a 30-minute presentation and a 30-minutes Q&A session to answer questions from participants.

Download the Presentation slides HERE. And watch the Video recording HERE

---

• To get more information, please visit www.stg-iabeurope-iabeuropeold.kinsta.cloud/tcf
• To submit feedback on the TCF v2.0 Policies, please email framework@iabeurope.eu
• To submit feedback on the TCF v2.0 Technical specifications, please email transparencyframework@iabtechlab.com