IAB Europe launches #NoEasyWins campaign

Launched today, IAB Europe’s #NoEasyWins campaign highlights how a ban on targeted advertising would be an ‘own goal’ for digital Europe with negative consequences for consumers, small businesses and small publishers alike.

The activity features short videos asking viewers to consider who really loses out when access to highly effective, low cost digital tools is taken away from businesses and also highlights how targeting is essential to growing advertising revenue. It launches as negotiations on the Digital Services Act (DSA) package reach a climax in the European Parliament’s Internal Market and Consumer Protection Committee (IMCO). 

Commenting on the campaign, IAB Europe’s CEO Townsend Feehan said: ‘‘The aim of the DSA – to make the internet a place European consumers can navigate with confidence, including by reducing the incidence of online disinformation – is a crucial one that the online advertising industry supports on the merits and out of self-interest. We fully endorse provisions in the original DSA proposal such as mandatory information disclosures on the identity of the advertiser, including for issue-based and political advertising, that go beyond what is already laid down in EU privacy and data protection law.

“But a move to ban ‘targeted’ advertising would penalise SMEs and small publishers without necessarily having any material impact on online disinformation. As often in politics, there are no easy wins. We hope these short videos will encourage MEPs to resist the temptation to lay on more rules and instead insist that the existing rules be effectively enforced.”

Find out more about the campaign via IAB Europe here.