Credit: Efem Yagiz Soysal Vvia Unsplash
The big advertising agencies are reportedly in settlement talks with an arm of the US government over allegations they broke the law by boycotting certain media platforms over brand safety concerns.
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has been investigating whether the agencies, including Publicis, WPP, dentsu and Havas, had violated antitrust laws by withholding advertising.
Among the platforms allegedly boycotted is Elon Musk’s social media platform, X, formerly Twitter.
Advertisers did withdraw, over concerns for brand safety, from Twitter when Musk took the platform private in 2022 and said he would champion free speech by easing content restrictions.
The FTC had been looking at a range of advertising bodies, including the World Federation of Advertisers (WFA) and the Global Alliance for Responsible Media (GARM).
A Congressional investigation found that the GARM banded together the most powerful firms in their industry to “choke off” the advertising revenue of those who disagreed with them, disseminated information they believed to be untrue or refused to de-platform those who did.
GARM disbanded under a cloud of litigation and congressional investigation.
The World Federation of Advertisers’ members account for roughly 90% of global advertising spending.
FTC chair Andrew Ferguson, in comments made in December 2024, believes any unlawful collusion between online platforms, and advertiser boycotts which “threaten competition” should be subject to prosecution.
The FTC believes the advertising industry has been “plagued by deliberate, coordinated efforts” to steer ads away from certain news organisations, media outlets and social media networks.
This is seen as a reference to efforts by president Donald Trump's administration to root out political bias against conservative voices and causes.
“This type of coordination risks America’s largest companies’ economic weight unwittingly being enlisted for the political and ideological aims of certain advertising industry groups and political activists who in turn avoid the costs they would incur if they merely refused to deal on their own,” said the FTC’s Ferguson
The Wall Street Journal reports that the FTC is negotiating a potential settlement, according to people familiar with the matter.
An agreement with the FTC would be predicated on no admission of guilt or wrongdoing.
Omnicom, in its takeover of rival IPG, came up with a “remedy” for anticompetitive effects of their merging to create the world’s biggest advertising group.
The two companies promised not to create exclusion lists, which previously had cut some publishers out of advertising placements on “political or ideological” grounds.
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