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(1) The supply of and demand for political advertising are growing and becoming increasingly cross-border in nature. A large, diversified and increasing number of services are associated with that activity, such as political consultancies, advertising agencies, ‘ad-tech’ platforms, public relations firms, influencers and various data analytics and brokerage operators. Political advertising can take many forms, including paid content, sponsored search results, paid targeted messages, promotion in rankings, promotion of something or someone integrated into content, such as product placement, influencers and other endorsements. Related activities can involve, for instance, the dissemination of political advertising upon request of a sponsor or the publication of content against payment or other forms of remuneration, including benefits in kind.

(2) Political advertising can be disseminated or published through various means and media across borders both online and offline. It is rapidly increasing and can be disseminated or published via traditional offline media, such as newspapers, television and radio, but also increasingly via online platforms, websites, mobile applications, computer games and other digital interfaces. The latter are not only particularly likely to be offered cross-border, but also raise novel and difficult regulatory and enforcement challenges. The use of online political advertising is strongly increasing, and certain linear offline forms of political advertising, such as radio and television, are also offered online as on-demand services. Political advertising campaigns tend to be organised to make use of a range of media and forms.

(3) Given that it is normally provided against remuneration, which may include benefits in kind, advertising, including political advertising, constitutes a service activity under Article 57 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU). In Declaration No 22, regarding persons with a disability, annexed to the Treaty of Amsterdam, the Conference of the Representatives of the Governments of the Member States agreed that, in drawing up measures under Article 114 TFEU, the institutions of the Union are to take account of the needs of persons with disabilities.

(4) The need to ensure transparency is a legitimate public goal, in conformity with the values shared by the Union and its Member States pursuant to Article 2 of the Treaty on European Union (TEU). It is not always easy for citizens to recognise political advertisements and exercise their democratic rights in an informed manner. An increase in the sophistication of disinformation, diversification of actors, the fast evolution of new technologies and intensified spread of information manipulation and interference in our democratic electoral and regulatory processes are important challenges for the Union and for the Member States. Political advertising can be a vector of disinformation, in particular where the advertising does not disclose its political nature, comes from sponsors outside of the Union or is subject to targeting techniques or ad-delivery techniques. A high level of transparency is necessary inter alia to support open and fair political debate and political campaigns, and free and fair elections or referendums, and to counter information manipulation and interference, as well as unlawful interference, including from third countries. Transparency of political advertising contributes to enabling voters and individuals in general to better understand when they are being presented with a political advertisement, on whose behalf that advertisement is being made, as well as how and why they are being targeted by a provider of advertising services, so that voters are better placed to make informed choices. Media literacy should be supported to help individuals make best use of the transparency of political advertising.

(5) This Regulation aims to ensure that the provision of political advertising is in full respect of fundamental rights.

(6) In the context of political advertising, frequent use is made of targeting techniques and ad-delivery techniques on the basis of the processing of personal data, including observed and inferred personal data, such as data revealing political opinions and other special categories of data. Targeting techniques should be understood as techniques that are used either to address a political advertisement only to a specific person or group of persons or to exclude them, usually with tailored content, on the basis of the processing of personal data. Ad-delivery techniques should be understood as a wide range of optimisation techniques that rely on the automated processing of personal data in order to increase the circulation, reach or visibility of a political advertisement. Such techniques can be used by political advertising publishers and, in particular, by very large online platforms within the meaning of Regulation (EU) 2022/2065 of the European Parliament and of the Council , to deliver political advertisements to a targeted audience based on personal data and on the content of advertisements. Delivering advertisements using such techniques involves the use of algorithms which are currently opaque to individuals and the effect of which can differ from what the sponsors, or providers of advertising services acting on behalf of sponsors, intended. Given the potential for the misuse of personal data through targeting, including through microtargeting and other advanced techniques, such techniques may present particular threats to legitimate public interests, such as fairness, equal opportunities and transparency in the electoral process and the fundamental rights to freedom of expression, to privacy and the protection of personal data and to equality and non-discrimination, and the right to be informed in an objective, transparent and pluralistic way.

(7) Political advertising is currently regulated heterogeneously in the Member States, which in many cases tends to focus on traditional media forms. Specific restrictions exist including on cross-border provision of political advertising services, which affect the conduct of cross-border and pan-European political campaigns. Some Member States prohibit Union service providers established in other Member States from providing services of a political nature or with a political purpose during electoral periods. At the same time, gaps and loopholes are likely to exist in the national law of some Member States, resulting in political advertising sometimes being disseminated without regard to relevant national rules and thus risking undermining the transparency regulation of political advertising.

(8) To provide enhanced transparency of political advertising, including to address citizens’ concerns, some Member States have already explored or are considering additional measures to address the transparency of political advertising and to support a fair political debate and free and fair elections or referendums. Those national measures are in particular considered for political advertising published and disseminated online and can include further restrictions. Those measures vary from soft to binding measures and entail different elements of transparency.

(9) That situation leads to the fragmentation of the internal market, decreases legal certainty for providers of political advertising services preparing, placing, promoting, publishing, delivering or disseminating political advertisements, creates barriers to the free movement of related services, distorts competition in the internal market, including between offline and online service providers, and requires complex compliance efforts and additional costs for relevant service providers.

(10) In that context, providers of political advertising services are likely to be discouraged from providing their political advertising services in cross-border situations. That is particularly true for micro, small and medium-sized undertakings, which often do not have the resources to absorb or pass on the high compliance costs connected to the preparation, placement, promotion, publication, delivery or dissemination of political advertising in more than one Member State. That limits the availability of services and negatively impacts the possibility for service providers to innovate and offer multi-medium and multi-national campaigns within the internal market.

(11) A consistent and high level of transparency of political advertising throughout the Union should therefore be ensured when political advertising services are provided, while divergences hampering the free circulation of related services within the internal market should be prevented, by laying down harmonised rules for the provision of political advertising services, including on transparency and related due diligence obligations, for sponsors and providers of political advertising services guaranteeing the uniform protection of rights of persons and supervision throughout the internal market based on Article 114 TFEU.

(12) Member States should not maintain or introduce, in their national laws, provisions on the transparency of political advertising that diverge from those laid down in this Regulation, in particular more or less stringent provisions to ensure a different level of transparency in political advertising. Full harmonisation of the transparency and related due diligence obligations linked to political advertisement increases legal certainty and reduces the fragmentation of the obligations that service providers meet in the context of political advertising.