Transparency and targeting of political advertising

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Transparency and Targeting of Political Advertising
  • Regulation (EU) 2024/900 on the transparency and targeting of political advertising
EnactedMarch 2024
CommencedAutumn 2025 (most provisions)
Status: In force

Transparency and Targeting of Political Advertising refers to Regulation (EU) 2024/900, a European Union law adopted in March 2024 that introduces harmonised rules for transparency and targeting in political advertising across all EU member states. [1]

Contents

The regulation complements the Digital Services Act, General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), and the EU Code of Practice on Disinformation. It responds to increasing concerns about the influence of microtargeting in elections, especially by third-country actors. [1]

Scope and Definitions

The regulation broadly defines political advertising to include the preparation, placement, promotion, delivery, or dissemination of messages that are:

Covered actors include political parties, campaign organisations, elected officials, and issue-based groups. Even civil society campaigns are affected if they relate to political or legislative outcomes. [1]

Key Provisions

The regulation introduces the following core obligations:

Transparency and labelling

Targeting Restrictions

Third-Country Restrictions

Record-Keeping and Compliance

Repository for Political Ads

A central EU repository for online political advertising will include metadata standards, authentication protocols, APIs for third-party access, and allow stakeholders (e.g. journalists, researchers, civil society) to request machine-readable data from providers under Article 17.

Implementation timeline

Reactions

Withdrawals from advertising platforms

Google announced its exit from the EU political ad market in late 2024, highlighting the regulation’s broad scope and lack of reliable electoral data. [3]

Meta Platforms announced that it will suspend all political and issue-based ads on its platforms in the EU from October 2025, citing "legal uncertainty" and "operational challenges". [4]

Civil Society Concerns

Critics argue the regulation risks conflating civil society with political parties, placing excessive burdens on NGOs, grassroots campaigns, and issue-driven communication. Groups have warned this may chill speech on topics like abortion or domestic violence when connected to legislative processes. [3]

Observers have flagged issues including, overly broad definitions of “political advertising”, lack of technical guidance ahead of enforcement, disproportionate impacts on small and medium enterprises, risk of democratic distortion due to reliance on dominant platforms like Meta. [3]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 "Transparency and targeting of political advertising". eur-lex.europa.eu. Retrieved 26 July 2025.
  2. "EU introduces new rules on transparency and targeting of political advertising". Consilium. Retrieved 2025-07-26.
  3. 1 2 3 Simon, Eva (25 November 2024). "Why we should worry about Google's stopping serving political advertising in EU". EUobserver. Retrieved 26 July 2025.
  4. "Meta to halt political advertising in EU in October, blames EU rules". Reuters. 25 July 2025. Retrieved 26 July 2025.