United States of America: Introduced Competition and Transparency in Digital Advertising Act

On 19 May 2022, the Competition and Transparency in Digital Advertising Act was introduced in the US Senate, aiming to enhance competition in digital advertising by introducing duties for digital advertising companies. Firstly, the Act would oblige companies that process more than $20 billion in digital advertising transactions to own only one side of the digital advertising ecosystem. Secondly, the Act would require companies processing more than USD 5 billion in digital advertising transactions to act in the customers' best interests (i.e., by assuring the best execution for bids on adsvertisements), enhance transparency, establish firewalls to prevent abuse and conflicts of interest (if companies operate both sides of the market) and provide customers with "fair access" to services. The Act would introduce a private right of action in case of violations.