25 April 2022, Brussels, Belgium - IAB Europe welcomes the Council and European Parliament on the political agreement reached on the Digital Services Act (DSA) proposal on 23 April. The agreement marks an important further milestone in increasing user and business confidence online.  

In particular, we commend the EU institutions’ adherence to much of the Commission’s original vision, and the relative lack of overlap with existing EU law, most notably the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), in the final text.  

“Despite having a number of provisions that relate to use of consumer data, DSA will have a separate enforcement regime from the EU’s privacy and data protection legislation”, noted Greg Mroczkowski, IAB Europe Public Policy Director. “Broad restrictions on the use of data for advertising that were discussed during the legislative process looked like creating a risk of rules governing the same data processing being subject to different, competing enforcement regimes, with the risk of confusion for both users and business. While it would appear that the final text mostly avoids this, the regulatory landscape will nonetheless be a very complex one. IAB Europe will remain invested in constructive dialogue with policymakers and regulators with a view to improving legal certainty”.  

IAB Europe looks forward to working with the European Commission and other stakeholders on implementation of the new advertising transparency requirements.