IAB Tech Lab launches Supply Chain Validation service for publishers

IAB Tech Lab has announced the launch of a new automated service for publishers’ Supply Chain Validation. This service allows publishers to validate authorised sellers of their inventory by verifying their ads.txt (authorised digital sellers file) or app-ads.txt files against sellers.json files programmatically.

Two of the most widely adopted sell-side transparency specifications from IAB Tech Lab - ads.txt and app-ads.txt - help eliminate misrepresented, fraudulent inventory by providing a mechanism for publishers to publicly list who is authorised to sell their inventory. The accompanying sellers.json specification enables buyers to verify the entities who are either direct sellers of, or intermediaries in the selected digital advertising opportunity for purchase. The Supply Chain Validation service works to...

• Validate information between both ads.txt and sellers.json daily
• Notify the publisher of inconsistencies between their listed sellers and the referenced sellers.json files
• Make validation results accessible to all IAB Tech Lab members

Shailley Singh, Acting General Manager and SVP, Product Management at IAB Tech Lab said: “IAB Tech Lab seeks to make our specifications as easy to implement and use as possible. For a specification used so widely and relied on daily for the integrity of programmatic transactions, it’s critical that publishers have an automated way to verify how their authorised selling partners represent them. Ultimately, Supply Chain Validation aims to ensure that sell-side transparency standards are properly implemented and give buyers and publishers more confidence to transact.”

Supply Chain Validation is available for registration now in the IAB Tech Lab Tools portal. Find out more about the service and sign up here.