What that you must know
- The EU’s forthcoming TTPA regulation is expected to introduce novel operational complexities and legal ambiguities.
- Prior to the Transposition Timeline for the Political Advertising Regulation (TTPA) coming into effect on October 2025, Google has announced that it will proactively withdraw political advertisements from its platforms and ban paid political content on YouTube across the European Union, effective before the regulation takes hold.
- Following the introduction of new legislation, Google has taken comparable steps to address political advertising in Brazil, Canada, and France, echoing similar moves globally.
As of October 2025, Google will discontinue providing political advertising services to clients within the European Union ahead of forthcoming legislation coming into effect, the company announced on Thursday, November. 14. Google is set to introduce significant changes with its Regulation on Transparency and Focus of Political Promoting, which may lead to new operational hurdles and legal ambiguities for political advertisers and platforms. In response, it has decided to withdraw all political advertisements from the region, and YouTube paid promotions are likely to be prohibited as well.
There are three paramount features of the Trade Therapy Prevention Act. Every political advertisement ought to prominently display transparent labels that are easily accessible to viewers. Labels must explicitly specify the sponsor, its connection to a particular election or referendum, the sums disbursed, and any tactics employed.
While the TTPA’s regulation will indeed impose significant restrictions on the types of targeted advertising permitted for political content, the specific timing of their application remains uncertain. The individual viewing the ads must have provided explicit and distinct consent for not only the collection of information but also its collection and utilization specifically for the purposes of targeted political advertising. Certain types of knowledge, such as a person’s racial or ethnic background and political affiliations, should not be taken into consideration at all.
The TTPA will prohibit third-country sponsors from engaging in political campaigning three months prior to a European Union election or referendum, thereby establishing a more stringent regulatory framework for political influence activities within the bloc.
Google takes issue with the scope of the Telecom Truthful Political Activity (TTPA) regulation, primarily with the definition of a political advertisement itself, which it deems too broad and unclear.
According to Annette Kroeber-Riel, Google’s Vice President of Government Affairs and Public Policy for Europe, the TTPA’s definition of political promoting is so expansive that it could potentially cover advertisements related to a wide range of topics, making it challenging to reliably identify these ads at scale. As the availability of reliable native election data remains limited, it is challenging to identify with certainty all advertisements linked to local, regional, or national elections across the 27 EU Member States at any given time. Key technical guidance may not be fully solidified until just a few months before the regulation takes effect.
The corporation cites the following reasons for ceasing all political advertising efforts within the EU, including a prohibition on compensated political endorsements. According to Google, these measures are expected to come into effect by 2025, with additional details forthcoming. As required by regulatory authorities, the corporation has implemented similar measures in Canada, Brazil, and France.
