European Commission Issues Regulation on Political Advertising Transparency

Strategic Insights -

The European Commission has issued a regulation requiring political advertisers to disclose information in a clear and salient way, including a statement that the advertisement is political, the identity of the sponsor, and the entity ultimately controlling the sponsor. This regulation aims to improve transparency and targeting of political advertising across the European Union.

Key Takeaways:

  • The regulation requires political advertising publishers to ensure that each political advertisement is made available together with the following information in a clear, salient, and unambiguous way: a statement that it is a political advertisement, the identity of the sponsor, where applicable, the entity ultimately controlling the sponsor, where applicable, the election, referendum, legislative or regulatory process to which the political advertisement is linked, and where applicable, a statement that the political advertisement has been subject to targeting or ad-delivery techniques.
  • Political advertising publishers are also required to ensure the completeness of the information listed in Article 11(1) of Regulation (EU) 2024/900, and the accuracy of the information of where the transparency notice can be retrieved.
  • Labels and transparency notices must be provided in a format that is easily accessible, clearly visible, user-friendly, including through the use of plain language, and accessible for persons with disabilities.
  • Transparency notices must be retained together with any modifications that were made to those notices for a period of seven years after the last publication of the political advertisement concerned.
  • Member States, including competent authorities, and the Commission are to encourage the drawing up of voluntary codes of conduct intended to contribute to the proper labelling of political advertisements.

Statistics:

  • The regulation requires political advertising publishers to retain transparency notices for 7 years.
  • The regulation aims to improve transparency and targeting of political advertising across the European Union.
  • The regulation takes into account the specific needs of micro, small, and medium-sized undertakings, in line with the principle of proportionality.

Sources:

  • COMMISSION IMPLEMENTING REGULATION (EU) 2025/1410 of 9 July 2025 on the format, template and technical specifications of the labels and transparency notices of political advertisements in accordance with Articles 11 and 12 of Regulation (EU) 2024/900 of the European Parliament and of the Council.
  • Regulation (EU) 2024/900 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 13 March 2024 on the transparency and targeting of political advertising.
  • Directive (EU) 2019/882 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 17 April 2019 on the accessibility requirements for products and services.
  • Regulation (EU) 2018/1725 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 23 October 2018, on the protection of natural persons with regard to the processing of personal data by the Union institutions, bodies, offices and agencies and on the free movement of such data, and repealing Regulation (EC) No 45/2001 and Decision No 1247/2002/EC.