The EU Political Advertising Regulation: What You Need to Know

On 10 October 2025, the majority of obligations under the European Union (“EU”)'s Regulation (EU) 2024/900 on the transparency and targeting of political advertising (i.e. the Political Advertising Regulation, or "PAR") became applicable. Guidance issued by the European Commission on implementation of PAR (the “Guidance”) was finalised two days beforehand on 8 October. 

PAR can apply to a wide range of services in the advertising ecosystem - even those only involved in commercial advertising - and regulatory fines under PAR can be up to 6% annual income, budget or worldwide turnover. What is PAR, and how can services assess scope and ensure compliance? 

Objectives of PAR

PAR aims to (i) ensure EU citizens are better placed to recognise political advertising and therefore better able to exercise their democratic rights, (ii) place stricter conditions on the targeting of political advertising online in order to respect users’ right to privacy, and (iii) protect the integrity of elections and referendums against information manipulation and foreign interference. 

Understanding PAR’s scope - what is political advertising?

Importantly, PAR defines “political advertising” broadly and in some circumstances it can capture commercial advertising. 

Political advertising is defined as (emphasis added) the preparation, placement, promotion, publication, delivery or dissemination, by any means, of a message, normally provided for remuneration or through in-house activities or as part of a political advertising:

(a) by, for or on behalf of a political actor, unless it is of a purely private or a purely commercial nature; or

(b) which is liable and designed to influence the outcome of an election or referendum, voting behaviour or a legislative or regulatory process, at Union, national, regional or local level…”,

in each case to the extent that it is disseminated in the EU, brought into the public domain in one or several EU Member States or directed to EU citizens. 

The definition is broad and in particular, limb (b) could capture campaigns by commercial organisations to the extent for example they are lobbying for/responding to specific proposed legislative changes (thus liable to influence the outcome of the legislative process) or encouraging voter turnout (thus liable to influence voter behaviour), provided the messages were initially designed for this purpose. 

What is not included? 

The definition carves out three exceptions, being:

• messages from official Member State or EU sources which are limited to the organisation and modalities for participating in elections or referendums;

• public communications aiming to provide official information to the public by, for or on behalf of the EU or a Member State public authority (provided these do not meet the “liable and designed to influence the outcome” criterion at (b) above); and

• the presentation of candidates in specified public spaces or media, subject to certain conditions.

PAR separately clarifies that the definition will also not capture the following, in order to protect freedom of expression:

• political opinions expressed in a personal capacity; or

• political views (or other content) under the editorial responsibility of the media such as opinions/assessments shared as part of a political debate or interviews, unless specific remuneration is provided for or in connection with them.

Which industry players are required to comply with PAR?

Many players in the advertising space will be subject to obligations under PAR, including:

• individuals or companies at whose request the advertising is taking place, for example political parties, candidates, civil society, or commercial organisations  ("sponsors");

• a broad range of parties throughout the supply chain involved in the provision of services consisting of political advertising, including advertising agencies, political consultancies, Adtech providers, data brokers, online platforms, newspapers, and influencers (providers of “political advertising services") provided these services are not purely “ancillary”; 

• a subset of providers of political advertising services, usually at the end of the supply chain, which publish, deliver or disseminate political advertising and play a role in bringing it to the public (“political advertising publishers”). This will clearly include publishers such as online platforms and websites. The Guidance also suggests this will include Adtech intermediaries (e.g. ad networks, ad exchanges, demand and supply-side platforms) although it says in practice they will often be “joint publishers” with the relevant end-publisher, and can contractually allocate responsibilities between them; and

• any controllers (under the EU General Data Protection Regulation 2016/679 (“GDPR”)), including providers of political advertising services and political advertising publishers, who use targeting and ad-delivery techniques in the context of online political advertising. 

What about intermediary services under DSA?

Some of these actors will also be subject to obligations as “intermediary services” under the EU’s Digital Services Act 2022/2065 (“DSA”). Although the definition of “political advertising services” carves out some intermediary services, this only excludes those where the political ad is disseminated, etc. without consideration in relation to the specific message, for instance, where an influencer (not the online platform) is paid by a third party to promote a political message and the platform merely hosts the content.

However, in other scenarios a DSA intermediary service could fall within the scope of the PAR, for example if the online platform in question is paid to boost the particular message.

Key obligations for providers of political advertising services

Some key obligations for providers of political advertising services to be aware of include:

• Non-discrimination in the provision of services solely on grounds of the sponsor’s residence or establishment (this obligation has been in force since 9 April 2024);

• (Foreign influence restrictions) Time-based restrictions in the three months leading up to an election or referendum where such services can only be provided to sponsors (or service providers acting on their behalf) who are EU citizens; individuals with permanent EU residency and the right to vote; or companies established in the EU and not under foreign ownership or control (although Member States may implement stricter national rules);

• Contractual arrangements are required to enable compliance with the PAR generally, and support the understanding of and facilitate the flow of information across the supply chain. Contracts must feature a provision requiring sponsors (or service providers acting on their behalf) to declare whether the service they are requesting constitutes political advertising;

• Record-keeping of specific information listed in Art 9 PAR collected in the provision of their services for seven years from the date of the last dissemination, etc. of the political advertisement in question, and reasonable efforts to ensure this information is complete and accurate;

• Transmission of the records above in a timely, complete and accurate manner to political advertising publishers, and ensuring updates to this information are transmitted where required;

• Governance and information sharing – designation of a point of contact for authorities to whom the above information must be transmitted on request. Subject to certain conditions, information must also be shared interested entities such as journalists or vetted researchers. A legal representative requirement also exists for non-EU established entities.

Key obligations for all controllers using targeting and ad-delivery techniques in the context of online political advertising  

These specific obligations are still subject to additional guidelines being awaited from the European Data Protection Board (“EDPB”). However in summary, where targeting and ad-delivery techniques are used, the controller must comply with the following (which will often need to be contractually passed down through the supply chain, and in some cases will be reflective of existing protections controllers already have in place under GDPR):

• Obtain explicit consent from the data subject separately for the purpose of political advertising;

• Deploy targeting restrictions - the controller is not permitted to profile for political advertising purposes using special categories of personal data (including political opinions), or deploy targeting or ad-delivery techniques where either (i) data has not been collected from the data subject (i.e. is not first-party data) – the EDPB’s guidance is eagerly awaited to deal with ecosystem challenges in this respect; or (ii) they involve processing of personal data where the controller has reasonable certainty that the data subject is at least one year under the relevant voting age; and

• Comply with additional transparency requirements e.g. publication of internal policies on targeting and ad-delivery techniques, conducting internal annual risk assessments, and providing additional information to data subjects about such techniques and how to exercise their rights (if necessary, by passing this information on to the relevant political advertising publisher).

Additional obligations for political advertising publishers

Political advertising publishers are subject to the following additional obligations under PAR. As above, where intermediaries are “joint publishers” with end-publishers, these should be contractually allocated as appropriate: 

• Labelling and transparency through ensuring each political advertisement clearly and unambiguously includes the prescribed set of information at Art 11 PAR, including an easily accessible transparency notice setting out the information listed at Art 12 PAR (in practice, much of this information will need to be obtained from others in the supply chain). The European Commission has published an Implementing Regulation on the format, template and technical specifications of labels and transparency notices; 

• Upload advertisements and transparency notices to a public repository of online political advertisements that will be maintained by the European Commission. Publishers which are DSA “very large online platforms” ("VLOPs") or “very large online search engines” ("VLOSEs") must enable access through the repository to, and make the same information available in, their DSA repositories as well; 

• Periodic reporting through attachment of certain information listed in Art 14 PAR to their management reports. Where applicable, this must also be provided to authorities in charge of auditing or supervising political actors; and

• Implementation of notification mechanisms to receive notifications of non-compliance from stakeholders, and process such notices in accordance with timeframes set out in Art 15 PAR. 

Practical Takeaways

PAR’s implementation has proven particularly challenging in digital environments, with many large technology companies adopting strict stances due to political advertising representing only a marginal share of their businesses. Meta, Google, and a number of Adtech intermediaries have publicly announced they have now suspended, banned or ceased providing political advertising services in the EU. 

For sponsors or providers who would prefer to continue political advertising in the EU, practical compliance next steps will need to be carefully thought-through given the complexity of the regulation, including:

• Scoping - determining whether you conduct, or provide services consisting of, political advertising within the meaning of PAR; 

• Information mapping - ensuring information flows are well-documented and understood throughout your supply chain;

• Contractual updates - understanding how responsibility is allocated between stakeholders so this can be reallocated or renegotiated as required; and

• Product changes - implementing additional transparency or product design requirements where these apply to you, including in relation to targeting and ad-delivery techniques.

If you are one such provider, and you have questions whilst navigating your way through this new piece of legislation, please get in touch with the article contributors — Alex Dixie, Heather Catchpole and Stephenie Ong.