Majority of Retail Media Buyers and Sellers Want Standards in Media and Attribution Measurement
6th September, 2023 - Brussels, Belgium, IAB Europe, the leading European-level industry association for the digital advertising and marketing ecosystem, today released the first pan-European definitions for Retail Media in a new comprehensive 101 Guide to Retail Media. This groundbreaking initiative created by IAB Europe’s Retail Media Working Group provides a comprehensive overview of what Retail Media is, including a breakdown of on-site, off-site and in-store definitions, and essential guidance to the buying and selling of Retail Media in Europe. The Guide serves as a valuable resource for all industry stakeholders, offering an introduction to Retail Media and its growing significance in the European Market.
Defining Retail Media for Europe
Retail Media has emerged as a powerful digital advertising tool in recent years, but as with any emerging technology or solution it is vital to first understand and define what we mean by Retail Media and to dispel any misconceptions or confusion surrounding the different aspects of it. To overcome this challenge IAB Europe’s Retail Media Working Group has created the first pan-European definitions of Retail Media in a digital advertising sphere. Working collaboratively with National IABs across Europe and drilling down into digital on-site, digital off-site and digital in-store, these definitions help provide a clear understanding of the Retail Media, and educate industry stakeholders on how to leverage it effectively.
Guide to Retail Media in Europe
To help support the definitions of Retail Media, the working group has also created a 101 Guide, designed to empower buyers and sellers to make informed decisions and achieve their advertising objectives through Retail Media. This introductory guide covers all the must-know aspects of Retail Media, including insights into how campaigns can be purchased, reasons why retail media is essential for brands, and an overview of available measurement and targeting options.
Commenting on the publication of the 101 Guide, Jason Wescott, Global Practice Lead, Commerce at GroupM Nexus said “The success of early adopters in digital retail media has driven more retailers to throw their hats in the ring. More digital retail media owners means buying becomes more complex, confusing, and highly specialised, as each retailer has their own definitions, campaign metrics and attribution windows. For advertisers, this makes it hard to compare across digital retail media platforms vis-à-vis planning budgets, strategies, and campaign activations. The IAB Europe Retail Media 101 Guide will empower the industry with key knowledge on what digital Retail Media is, how it can be bought and why it should matter to brands. Equip yourself with exactly what good looks like, so you can approach the exciting world of digital retail media, with confidence.”
Creating Standards for a Thriving Retail Media Market
A recent IAB Europe survey of over 100 Retail Media buyers and sellers found that over two thirds of buyers (70%) think the lack of standards for Retail Media is a barrier to investment. When asked about which standards are most important, the majority of buyers (90%) and sellers (84%) cited media and attribution measurement.
Commenting on the work IAB Europe is doing to advance education and standardisation in Retail Media, Townsend Feehan, CEO of IAB Europe said: "IAB Europe forecasts that ad spend on Retail Media will reach EUR 25 billion by 2026, exceeding traditional linear TV advertising. In order to fully realise this opportunity, we need to bridge the "knowledge gap" surrounding Retail Media. Our newly released pan-European definitions and the comprehensive 101 Guide will help industry stakeholders start to navigate this dynamic landscape. The clear call for standards that came through in our recent survey is driving our next move, with a dedicated new Retailer Council leading the work.”
The full guide is now available for download on the IAB Europe website here.
Dated: 05 October 2023
Important note: The Implementation deadline of TCF v2. has been moved from September 30th 2023 to November 20th 2023. More information here.
In order to respond to the changes and needs of the market, while continuing to help players in the online ecosystem comply with certain requirements of the ePrivacy Directive and the General Data Protection Regulation (“GDPR”), the Transparency and Consent Framework (“TCF”, “Framework”) needs to be updated on a regular basis. In particular, constant evolutions in case law as well as in guidelines of Data Protection Authorities (DPAs) place ever higher demands on market participants in terms of data protection requirements. The TCF instances have therefore drawn inspiration from them to bring new iterations to the Framework. In addition, some changes are related to the Action Plan submitted to and validated by the Belgian Data Protection Authority (more information here).
IAB Europe, in partnership with IAB Tech Lab, is committed to continuous improvement and development of the Framework through industry collaboration to meet the needs of users and regulators. The iterations brought by the TCF v2.2 aim to bring further standardisation of the information and choices that should be provided to users over the processing of their personal data, and to how these choices should be captured, communicated and respected.
TCF v2.2 will be launched mid-May and TCF participants will have until the end of Q3 2023 to make the necessary changes to their respective implementations. All iterations have been developed to avoid breaking changes to the existing v2.1 Technical Specifications and facilitate their adoption in a timely manner by CMPs and Vendors.
To help the market anticipate these upcoming changes, this article provides an overview of the different amendments to the TCF Policies and Technical Specifications. In the run up to the launch of TCF v2.2, IAB Europe is hosting a series of webinars to offer full support and guidance to CMPs, Vendors and Publishers. Recording of previous webinars can be found at the end of this blogpost.
1) Removal of the Legitimate Interest Legal Basis for Advertising & Content Personalisation
The current version of the TCF Policies allows the use of legitimate interest or consent to carry out data processing operations for Purposes 3 (Create a personalised ads profile), 4 (Select personalised ads), 5 (Create a personalised content profile) and 6 (Select personalised content). The TCF Policies will be amended to remove “legitimate interest” as an acceptable legal basis for these Purposes. As a consequence, within the scope of the TCF, Vendors will only be able to select consent as an acceptable legal basis for these Purposes at registration level.
2) Improvements to the Information Currently Provided to Users in CMP UIs
The Purpose names and descriptions will change. CMPs will be required to present improved user-friendly descriptions, replacing the current user-friendly text as well as the (currently) mandatory legal text. CMPs will also be required to make available illustrations based on real-use cases, which aim to explain to users how TCF Participants’ data processing operations relate to the Purposes.
In order to improve transparency over the means of processing used by Vendors in support of the TCF purposes, Vendors will be able to declare additional features at registration level.
3) Standardisation of the Additional Information About Vendors Provided to Users in the Secondary Layers of CMP UIs
To provide greater transparency, Vendors will now be required to provide additional information about their data processing operation at registration level - so that this information can in turn be disclosed by CMP to end-users in secondary layers UIs.
The new TCF Policies will include a standard taxonomy of categories of data, from which a Vendor can select from at registration level. The Policies will include a new UI requirement for CMPs to disclose for each Vendor the categories of data collected and processed.
Vendors will be able to declare, at the time of registration, how long (in days) they keep data for each declared purpose. Accordingly, the new TCF Policies will include a new UI requirement for CMPs to disclose for each Vendor how long they keep data to achieve each declared purpose.
Vendors will be required to declare what their legitimate interests at stake are, by providing at the registration level a dedicated URL where with this information can be found (e.g. a bookmark of their existing privacy policy). The amendment to the Policies will require CMPs to make this information available to users through the secondary layers of their UI.
Vendors will be able to declare during registration differentiated URLs to their privacy policy or legitimate interest statement for each TCF-supported language, where available. Publishers and their CMPs will have the option as a result to direct users to Vendors’ privacy documentation in the relevant language to improve transparency for users.
4) Greater Transparency for Users About the Number of Vendors
CMPs will be required to disclose on the first layer of the CMP UI the number of third-party Vendors that are seeking consent or pursue data processing purposes on the basis of their legitimate interests. The TCF Policies do not impose any specific maximum number of Vendors, but Publishers are strongly encouraged to ensure that they only work with Vendors that are (most) relevant to them. The TCF Policies will include a warning that an unjustifiably large number of Vendors may impact users’ ability to make informed choices and increase Publisher and Vendor legal risk.
To assist Publishers in the process of selecting the Vendors for which they establish transparency & consent, an additional Vendor Information List has been published (“B2B GVL”). It contains information that can make it easier for a Publisher to determine which Vendors are relevant for it. Information contained in the B2B GVL can be used by Publishers to, for example, avoid requesting user’s consent for Vendors that operate in technical environments and jurisdictions that are not relevant to their online services, as well as generally better understand each TCF Vendor’s scope of operations and whether it transfers data outside of the EEA.
5) More Specific Requirements to Facilitate Users’ Withdrawal of their Consent
Publishers and their CMPs will be required to ensure that users can re-access the CMP UI easily to manage their choices (e.g. from a floating icon or a footer link available on each webpage, or from the top-level setting of the app).
If the initial consent request presented to users contains a call to action that enables user to consent to all purposes and vendors in one click (such as “Consent to all”), an equivalent call to action should be provided when users re-access the CMP UI to withdraw consent to all purposes and vendors in one click (such as “Withdraw consent to all”).
Additionally, the TCF Technical Specifications will mandate Vendors (rather than only recommending) to use event listeners to ensure that any changes to TC Strings are proactively communicated to them and other Vendors. In the web environment, Vendors with access to Javascript will be required to register an event listener function (addEventListener) instead of using the getTCData command of the TCF API. In the app environment, Vendors must listen to IABTCF_* key updates to retrieve TC Strings from NSUserDefaults (iOS) or SharedPreferences (Android).
6) Enhanced TCF Compliance Programmes
Since 2019, IAB Europe has developed Compliance Programmes to verify compliance of TCF Participants with the Policies and Technical Specifications. These programmes will be expanded, with new auditing mechanisms and differentiated enforcement procedures.
All auditing mechanisms and verifications susceptible to be performed in the context of the TCF Compliance Programme will be described and published in a public Control Catalogue, to help TCF participants in assessing and reviewing the compliance of their TCF implementations. In addition to the Control Catalogue, IAB Europe will release a new version of the CMP Validator Chrome Extension that will be publicly available.
IAB Europe will increase the volume of proactive auditing of CMPs and Vendors that will be randomly selected each month, and will also act upon reports of non-compliance from the market or from end-users by making available a dedicated form to submit a complaint.
Vendors and CMPs will be subject to differentiated procedure according to the nature of the non-compliance. In particular, any tampering with or falsification of TC String will result in immediate suspension from the Framework for a minimum of four weeks, and will be notified publicly.
7) Reminder: Revocation of the consensu.org Subdomains
Support for Global-scope was deprecated in June 2021 due to negligible use by Publishers (less than 0,5%) and compliance considerations. The deprecation required CMPs to delete all existing euconsent-v2 cookies associated with the consensu.org domain. IAB Europe will now remove all consensu.org subdomain delegations to CMPs’ nameservers (which had previously been provided upon registration). As a result, CMPs will no longer be able to host their scripts on their consensu.org subdomain, and this in turn technically prevents them from setting and accessing cookies on the consensu.org domain.
CMPs currently hosting their scripts on their consensu.org subdomains will need to host them on a different domain. Their Publisher clients will need to redeploy a new script on their digital properties before July 10th (see notification here).
How Should TCF Participants Prepare ?
Changes to the TCF Technical Specifications
The changes to the TCF technical specifications are open for public comment until May 12th, 2023 and can be found here. Comments may be submitted via email to transparencyframework@iabtechlab.com. The technical changes included in TCF v2.2 are also outlined in IAB Tech Lab's blog post here.
Support Workshops for TCF Participants
Hosted in 1 hour-long webinar formats, TCF experts went through everything that is needed to fully implement TCF v2.2. All webinars featured Q&A sessions and have been recorded.
[Video Recordings]
Session 1: Overview of the main differences between the TCF policies 3.5 & 4.0
An overview of the main differences in policies between v2.1 & v2.2. This session is for all TCF stakeholders. Watch the recording here.
Session 2: Overview of the changes to the TCF technical specifications between v2.1 & v2.2
An overview of the changes to the TCF technical specifications between v2.1 & v2.2. This session is to help CMPs and Vendors navigate the different technical resources. Watch the recording here.
Vendors
Webinar recording to give an overview of the changes for Vendors implementing the TCF can be watched here and the presentation deck can be downloaded here.
CMPs
Webinar recording to give an overview of the changes for CMPs implementing the TCF can be watched here and the presentation deck can be downloaded here.
Publishers
Webinar recording to give an overview of the changes for Publishers implementing the TCF can be watched here and the presentation deck can be downloaded here.
Whether you’re a CMP, Publisher, or Vendor, discover everything you need to know about the latest version of the Transparency & Consent Framework (TCF v2.2) and what you need to do next in our latest exclusive webinar series.
Originally launched in 2018 in anticipation of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) coming into force, the TCF was created by IAB Europe, in partnership with IAB Tech Lab, to help meet the needs of users, the industry, and regulators.
Now, five years on, and as part of our continued commitment to improve and develop the framework, the latest version of the TCF v2.2 has been released to respond to key changes, meet the needs of the market and help players in the digital advertising ecosystem comply with new and existing regulatory requirements.
With CMPs, Publishers, and Vendors now having until the end of Q3 2023 to make the necessary changes to respective implementations, we’ve created a dedicated webinar series to help each stakeholder understand the nuances of the latest developments and what needs to happen next to ensure a successful transition.
Check out the details below and register to secure your free place today:
Important Note: The Implementation deadline of TCF v2.have been moved from September 30th 2023 to November 2023. More information here
Important note: The Implementation deadline of TCF v2. has been moved from September 30th 2023 to November 20th 2023. More information here.
In order to continue helping players in the online ecosystem comply with certain requirements of the ePrivacy Directive and the GDPR, the Transparency & Consent Framework (TCF) Steering Group has approved iterations to the Framework. The TCF working groups have worked intensively to bring further standardisation of the information and choices that should be provided to users over the processing of their personal data, and to how these choices should be captured, communicated and respected.
Constant evolutions in case law as well as in guidelines of Data Protection Authorities (DPAs) place even higher demands on market participants in terms of data protection, and the latest Transparency & Consent Framework v2.2 (TCF v2.2) brings meaningful changes in an attempt to better meet the expectations of regulators and needs of end-users.
TCF 2.2 launches today, 16th May 2023. This article provides an overview of the main policy and technical changes as well as a detailed timeline to help all stakeholders implement TCF 2.2.
TCF v2.2 Main Policy Amendments
Please consult the relevant sections of the updated Policies for further details and IAB Europe’s blogpost here.
TCF v2.2 Technical Specifications Updates
With a view to implementing these policy changes, IAB Tech Lab has updated the technical specifications for the Transparency & Consent Framework. These changes include:
Please consult the updated Technical Specifications for further details and IAB Tech Lab’s blogpost here.
The Javascript Library that supports TCF participants’ implementation is also being updated to accommodate TCF v2.2 here.
Implementation Timeline
Please note the following deadlines:
30 June 2023
Deadline for Vendors to update their GVL registration with the new required information (as well as any other required information they failed to update previously). They can do so by logging-in to the GVL registration portal here that has been updated with new registration fields for TCF v2.2. If you don’t see your existing data in the portal, clear your cache or log-in using a different browser.
Only Vendors that update their GVL registration according to the requirements will be published in the new version of the GVL (v3).
Vendors updating their registration will also continue to be published in the current version of the GVL (v2) that will continue to run until the end of the implementation period.
The GVL v3 will start being published weekly as Vendors update their registrations at https://vendor-list.consensu.org/v3/vendor-list.json, to enable CMPs to test the new format, and to start building new user-facing disclosures in line with the requirements of the Policies. Translation will be made available progressively here.
10 July 2023 (Reminder)
Deadline for CMPs to host their scripts on a domain other than consensu.org subdomains as per the notification here.
31 July 2023
Deadline for Vendors to complete a TCF Compliance Assessment form and submit it through the GVL registration portal as part of the updated TCF Compliance programmes described here.
30 September 2023 - end of implementation period
CMPs are required to implement the new policies and specifications by 30 September 2023. CMP Framework UIs will not need to apply for re-validation. Compliance with the new requirements will, however, be verified as part of IAB Europe’s regular monitoring of CMPs’ live installations as of the implementation deadline. To support CMPs in their developments, IAB Europe has released a new CMP Validator Chrome Extension available here that includes all requirements of TCF v2.2.
Vendors are required to implement the new policies and specifications by 30 September 2023. Similar to CMPs, compliance with the new requirements will be verified as part of IAB Europe’s regular monitoring of Vendors’ live installations as of the implementation deadline.
Please visit the TCF section of IAB Europe’s website for more information or read the FAQs document here.
Dedicated webinars were held at the beginning of June for each category of participants - Publishers, CMPs and Vendors and you can watch these in your own time below.
Vendors
Webinar recording for Vendors can be watched here and the presentation deck can be downloaded here.
CMPs
Webinar recording for CMPs can be watched here and the presentation deck can be downloaded here.
Publishers
Webinar recording for Publishers can be watched here and the presentation deck can be downloaded here.
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