European Union: European Commission opened consultation on draft guidance to support implementation of Regulation on transparency and targeting of political advertising

On 14 July 2025, the European Commission opened the consultation on its draft guidance to support the implementation of Regulation (EU) 2024/900 on the transparency and targeting of political advertising, until 13 September 2025. The guidance is intended to assist sponsors, providers of political advertising services, political advertising publishers, and competent Member State authorities in understanding and complying with the obligations under Chapters I and II of the Regulation. The draft guidance clarifies definitions, including political advertising, sponsors, and political actors, outlines the scope of covered services, and sets out due diligence obligations across the advertising value chain. It addresses exemptions for intermediary and ancillary services and elaborates on the identification of political advertising through practical criteria and examples. The guidance further specifies compliance mechanisms concerning contractual arrangements, record-keeping, information transmission, transparency notices, labelling, and the role of ad technology providers and content creators. It also details the obligations of sponsors to provide declarations, including under Article 5(2) regarding restrictions on third-country sponsors, three months prior to an election or referendum. The draft was informed by stakeholder consultations conducted between December 2024 and April 2025 and aims to reduce compliance burden while supporting the uniform application of the Regulation across the internal market.