FTC announces settlement with ad agencies over uniform standards

Federal Trade Commission announced that the agency and a coalition of states, took action today to “stop collusion between the nation’s largest advertising agencies that distorted America’s modern public square.” Starting in 2018, advertising agencies WPP (WPP), Publicis (PUBGY) and Dentsu “unlawfully colluded to impose common ‘brand safety’ standards across the digital advertising industry, according to the FTC’s complaint. The ad agencies, together with Omnicom (OMC) and Interpublic Group (IPG), operated through trade associations to establish a common “Brand Safety Floor” to target “misinformation,” according to the FTC. To resolve the FTC’s charges, the ad agencies have agreed to a proposed order that will stop the alleged coordinated conduct and prevent similar conduct from occurring in the future, the FTC says.