Agencies settle FTC probe
Three major ad groups agreed to settle an FTC investigation that accused them of coordinating to restrict ad placements tied to political content. The firms denied wrongdoing but accepted an order to stop jointly applying brand‑safety restrictions that regulators said had the effect of denying ad revenue to certain publishers. (reuters.com)
Three of the world’s biggest ad-buying groups agreed on April 15 to settle a Federal Trade Commission case that accused them of coordinating limits on where political news ads could run. (ftc.gov) The companies are WPP, Publicis and Dentsu, which buy digital ad inventory for brands and place campaigns across websites, apps and platforms. The Federal Trade Commission and eight Republican-led states sued them in federal court in Fort Worth, Texas, the same day the settlement was announced. (ftc.gov 1) (ftc.gov 2) At the center of the case is “brand safety,” the industry term for rules meant to keep ads away from content a client sees as risky, such as hate speech, graphic violence or misinformation. The Federal Trade Commission said those rules crossed into collusion when rival agencies allegedly adopted a shared floor for what counted as acceptable inventory. (ftc.gov) Regulators said the conduct began in 2018 and ran through trade groups including the World Federation of Advertisers’ Global Alliance for Responsible Media and the American Association of Advertising Agencies’ Advertiser Protection Bureau. The complaint says the agencies used common standards and exclusion lists that steered ad dollars away from publishers with “disfavored” political viewpoints. (ftc.gov 1) (ftc.gov 2) The proposed order does not ban brand-safety tools altogether. It bars the agencies from agreeing with one another to refuse business with publishers based on news, political or social commentary content, and from jointly using exclusion lists or common standards in ways the government says restrain competition. (ftc.gov) (courthousenews.com) The case lands after a year of pressure on the ad industry over whether brand-safety programs became a back door for viewpoint-based ad boycotts. In August 2024, the World Federation of Advertisers said it would discontinue Global Alliance for Responsible Media after X sued the group and several advertisers under antitrust law. (wfanet.org) The Federal Trade Commission had already pushed the issue into merger review. In June 2025, the agency published a proposed consent order for Omnicom’s acquisition of Interpublic that would bar the combined company from coordinating ad placements based on political or ideological viewpoints. (federalregister.gov) The ad groups did not admit liability. WPP Media said it reached a “no admit nor deny” consent order with the Federal Trade Commission and said the agreement reflects its “existing and ongoing commitment” to give clients unbiased advice on where to place media. (mediapost.com) The states that joined the case were Florida, Indiana, Iowa, Montana, Nebraska, Texas, Utah and West Virginia. If the court approves the settlements, the agencies keep their own brand-safety policies, but they will have to stop setting those rules together. (ftc.gov)
