Right to advertising transparency

What it is

The right to advertising transparency is the right to know who is advertising to you and why, whenever you see an ad online.

Before the DSA, online advertising was a “black box”:

• you did not know who paid for the ads;
• you did not know why you were being targeted;
• it was impossible to understand which data the targeting was based on.

After the DSA, transparency is mandatory:

• every ad must clearly identify itself as an ad;
• it must say who is paying;
• it must explain why it is being shown to you;
• you must be able to switch personalisation off.

What you must be able to see on every ad

1. Clear identification as advertising

A visible label: “Sponsored”, “Ad”, “Advertising”, “Promoted”.

• Not hidden.
• Not ambiguous.
• Clearly distinct from organic content.

2. Who is paying for the ad

Information about the advertiser:

• name (individual or company);
• VAT number or tax identifier;
• registered office;
• website;
• if the ad goes through an agency: the name of the agency and of the end client.

3. Why it is shown to you (targeting)

The targeting parameters used:

• demographics (age, gender, location);
• interests (inferred from your online activity);
• behaviour (sites visited, purchases);
• remarketing (you visited the advertiser’s website);
• lookalike (your profile resembles that of existing customers).

4. A link to manage your preferences

Every ad must link to a page where you can:

• switch off personalised advertising;
• change the interests attributed to you;
• object to profiling;
• see other ads from the same advertiser.

The public ad repository (VLOPs only)

Very large platforms, with over 45 million users in the EU, must maintain a public, searchable archive.

What it contains

• every ad published;
• the period it ran;
• the total number of impressions;
• the advertiser;
• the targeting parameters (in aggregate form).

How to use it

• Anyone can search it.
• You can search by advertiser, keyword or period.
• The data remains available for one year after the end of the campaign.

Examples of available repositories

• Meta Ad Library: facebook.com/ads/library
• Google Ads Transparency Center: adstransparency.google.com
• TikTok Ad Library: tiktok.com/transparency

The ban on advertising targeted at minors

The DSA (Art. 28(2)) sets an absolute rule:

• no personalised advertising to under-18s;
• no behavioural profiling of minors;
• no cross-site tracking to target minors.

Advertising allowed towards minors

• Contextual ads only (for example a video game ad on a page about video games).
• No ads based on inferred interests.
• No ads based on past behaviour.