Overview
- Three major ad buyers — Dentsu, Publicis, and WPP’s GroupM — reached proposed settlements with the FTC and eight states on Wednesday, with filings in federal court in Fort Worth, Texas.
- Under the proposed orders, the firms would be barred from coordinating ‘brand safety’ standards or using common exclusion lists to block ads based on news, politics, or social commentary, and they would face multi-year compliance reporting and an independent monitor if a judge approves the deals.
- The FTC alleges the agencies began coordinating in 2018 through trade groups like the Global Alliance for Responsible Media and the Advertiser Protection Bureau to set a “Brand Safety Floor” that steered ads away from content labeled as misinformation.
- The complaint says third-party raters such as NewsGuard, the Global Disinformation Index, Check My Ads, and Media Matters helped classify content that ad buyers then avoided, and it links the practices to reduced revenue for conservative outlets and platforms including X and Breitbart.
- The companies did not admit wrongdoing and said they remain committed to lawful, unbiased media buying, while the action follows a 2025 FTC merger order on Omnicom–IPG that similarly barred steering ads based on political or ideological views; court approval of the new settlements is still pending.