Gloomy times ahead for European political advertising

Last week, Meta announced that it will discontinue all political, electoral, and social issue advertising on its platforms in response to the EU’s Regulation on the Transparency and Targeting of Political Advertising (TTPA), set to take effect in October 2025. Google made a similar announcement in November 2024, signaling a major shift in the digital advertising landscape for political campaigns across Europe.

The TTPA, like many well-intentioned regulations, set out to address real challenges, such as foreign interference in European elections and the need to harmonize fragmented political advertising rules. However, as it developed, its scope expanded significantly, leading to unintended consequences - not theoretical or distant ones, but immediate and tangible impacts affecting a broad range of actors. 

In practice, this means that political parties, candidates, and policy-focused organizations (such as think tanks, non-governmental organizations, and civil society groups) will no longer be able to use sponsored, personalized advertisements on Google and Meta platforms to reach their audiences starting in October. This restriction applies not only during election periods but also in any instance where the intent is to influence legislative or regulatory outcomes at the EU, national, or even regional level.

Why the platforms opted out

The platforms have decided to opt out because the TTPA outlines strict obligations that result not only in high compliance costs, but also in the need to disclose many practices to a broad range of people - while also minimizing the effectiveness of advertising per se.

The TTPA provisions requiring political ads to carry so-called “transparency labels” are not the issue - many EU Member States already require candidates to disclose sponsorship. Nor are the requirements to block sponsored campaigns from third countries during the three months prior to elections; in today’s context, that may be a strict but necessary measure.

What is problematic is that these “transparency labels” must be accompanied by “easily retrievable transparency notes”, which would disclose not only the sponsor (fair), and the election or referendum to which they are linked (also fair), but also the amounts paid and the use of targeting techniques. Advertising platforms would also be required to disclose their internal advertising policies and retain and share this information for seven years (Article 19, TTPA).

Targeted advertising has long been on the European Commission’s agenda, and with the TTPA, it becomes a reality, specifically under Article 18. Targeted political ads will only be allowed if users give separate, explicit consent for their data to be used for political advertising (consent that can be withdrawn or modified at any time).

Moreover, personalized advertising would be de facto abolished, as the use of personal data, such as ethnic origin or political opinions, is prohibited for profiling and targeting purposes. In other words, users would be shown a broad mix of ads, including ones that do not align with their political views. As a result, political candidates or NGOs, will likely have to spend more to reach their intended audience, as they’ll need to target wider, less specific demographics.

Additional obligations for Very Large Online Platforms (VLOPs) include record-keeping requirements (Article 9) and the obligation to share those records with a broad range of stakeholders - journalists, civil society organizations, researchers, and even political competitors of those who ordered sponsored advertising (Article 17).

What civil society groups and Member States may have overlooked

What many civil society groups and Member States may have overlooked is that the TTPA’s definition of political advertising extends far beyond electoral campaigns. According to Article 3, section 2, it also applies to any advertisement “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 other words, any advertisement - from environmental groups, civil society organizations, or industry representatives - intended to support or oppose legislation or regulation, whether at the EU, national, or even municipal level, falls under the scope of the TTPA.

There is a limited exemption under Article 18, which allows NGOs to communicate with existing subscribers, members, or former members without being subject to the regulation - but, in practice, this is a minor exemption, limiting civil society groups from reaching new audiences. 

Notably, back in March 2024, only digitally advanced Estonia and Austria abstained from the vote on the TTPA (with Hungary voting against), possibly anticipating the unintended consequences now beginning to emerge.

What do these changes - and the withdrawals by Meta and Google - mean for European society?

Political candidates and advocacy organizations will likely be forced to shift toward traditional media campaigns, which are typically more expensive and less efficient. Reaching new audiences will become more complicated, and many will need to rely on organic growth or find workarounds to expand their user base - without promoting issue-specific content through paid ads.

Meanwhile, the actors that often pose the greatest security risks to Europe - those with opaque funding and questionable ties to third countries - normally already possess large user databases and employ flexible, tech-savvy outreach strategies. These include leveraging AI tools and influencers with established followings, allowing them to continue reaching European audiences with little disruption.