Online advertising verification: precautionary measures against META

Advertising verification refers to the control procedures implemented in the internet advertising sector, relating to the quality of an inventory or an advertising impression.

This advertising check has a threefold objective:

• Measure the visibility (viewability) of advertising by the user;
• detect fraud, including invalid traffic from machines or robots;
• ensure brand safety, by monitoring that advertising is not displayed in an environment that may harm interests, values, and brand suitability, according to criteria specific to the advertiser.

Adloox criticized Meta for having denied it access to the “viewability” and “brand safety” partnerships in a discriminatory manner, from 2016 to 2022, while it believed that it was in a similar situation to its competitors having access to said partnerships. Adloox also considered that Meta abwould use its dominant position by imposing unfair access conditions by giving only partial access to its ecosystem.

At the stage of the investigation, the ALDC considered that Meta is likely to hold a dominant position on the French market for online advertising on social media as well as on the broader market for online advertising not related to searches. The ADLC notes in this respect that in view of the amounts of advertising investments made on the meta’s platform, the latter is seen as an essential and indispensable economic partner for the operators of the online checking

The ADLC considers that Meta had implemented several practices that could constitute an abuse of a dominant position:

• Meta did not define criteria for access to and maintenance of transparent, objective, non-discriminatory and proportionate “viewability” and “brand safety” partnerships and integrated its current partners after an opaque procedure of which it alone had the initiative.
• the refusal of access to partnerships by Adloox is likely to be described as discriminatory, Adloox being in a situation equivalent to that of certain operators who had access to these partnerships, in view of the conditions allegedly applied by Meta.
• By creating artificial barriers to entry and expansion, such practices significantly hamper the development of the advertising verification industry as well as incentives to innovate. The ADLC notes that the scope of these practices is all the more impactful as they are part of a context of upcoming opening of the independent advertising verification, the European legislator having provided, through Regulation No.2022/1925 of 14 September 2022 on digital markets (“Digital Markets Act”), the obligation for the main advertising platforms to give free access to all the data necessary to Verification independent of their inventories.
• a serious and immediate attack on the interests of Adloox, whose inability to provide its verification services on Meta deprives it of a significant growth driver and is likely to cause it to lose its current customers.

  Therefore, the ADLC urges Meta to define and make public new criteria for access to and maintenance of “viewability” and “brand safety” partnerships that are objective, transparent, non-discriminatory and proportionate. It has also issued an injunction to allow for the rapid integration of Adloox into these partnerships, provided that this company meets the new access criteria.

  Guillaume Gouachon
  Associate Lawyer