Last updated: April 2011

New standards for Online Behavioural Advertising

The EASA Best Practice Recommendation on Online Behavioural Advertising, released on 14 April 2011, provides for an industry-wide self-regulatory standard for online behavioural advertising (OBA), which will ensure consumer privacy protection across Europe.

In practical terms, the Best Practice Recommendation promotes the identification of OBA ads via a uniform European-wide icon, which clicks through to a simple mechanism that provides consumers with full transparency, allowing them to exercise their online choices.

The icon will be included in or around all online behavioural advertisements and will signal to consumers that OBA is being used. The icon will be interactive, allowing them to find out more about which companies are involved in serving the ad and also to click through to a European-wide website (www.youronlinechoices.eu). The website will provide information about OBA and a simple means for consumers, in their national language, to exercise their choice about whether they want to receive OBA ads. Consumers that want to complain about an OBA ad will be able to do so via the established, independent advertising self-regulatory organisation in their home country.

The EASA Best Practice Recommendation incorporates and complements IAB (Interactive Advertising Bureau) Europe’s self-regulatory Framework for OBA that applies across the EU and EEA, which was also released on 14 April. EASA has worked with IAB Europe to deliver a Best Practice Recommendation that covers all parts of the advertising industry.

The recommendation has pan-industry support from ad networks, advertisers, agencies, media (including the digital interactive media) and EASA self-regulatory organisations4. With the adoption of the Best Practice Recommendation, national advertising self-regulatory organisations are now committed to applying self-regulatory standards to OBA, handling complaints thereon, and introducing the principles of the recommendation into their Codes.

Download the Best Practice Recommendation on Online Behavioural Advertising [Pdf, 1394Kb]

Background

Online Behavioural Advertising, a practice that is based on a user's internet browsing activity with a specific device and allows brands to deliver adverts that reflect the user's interests, has been at the centre of a privacy debate for the past few years since MEPs, Commissioners and national governments argued over wording about "cookies" in the ePrivacy directive adopted in 2009.

EASA and its industry members have since pushed forward advertising industry discussions on the subject focusing on a Best Practice Recommendation that provides for a European-wide icon to inform consumers when they are served online behavioural advertising as well as enforcement tools allowing consumers to exercise choices about online behavioural advertising. On the one hand, linking directly from the icon, consumers will find a website (in all different national languages) explaining where the information comes from that is used to generate online behavioural advertising and provides the opportunity to opt out of online behavioural advertising. On the other hand, it provides the possibility for consumers to use the trusted route via advertising self-regulatory organisations should they still wish to complain about an ad that was sent to them using data collected on web viewing behaviour.

Following a letter in September 2010 from European Commissioner for the Digital Agenda Neelie Kroes commending the advertising industry for its efforts thus far but highlighting the need for more transparency and user-friendliness, EASA and its members have risen to the challenge and presented the final draft of the Best Practice Recommendation on Online Behavioural Advertising on 16 December 2010 to the European Commission at a Round Table organised by DG InfSo.

Following that Round Table, EASA invited all interested parties including NGOs and the general public to comment on the final draft of the EASA Best Practice Recommendation on Online Behavioural Advertising and took these comments into account when finalising the document, which was presented at a second Round Table in March 2011.

The final draft of the Best Practice Recommendation was approved by EASA's Board on 7 April and will now be rolled out over the next welve months via national industry associations and self-regulatory organisations. By May the official consumer website will become live in at least 10 European languages with a gradual roll-out of further languages later in the year. By mid 2012 it is foreseen that 70% of all online behavioural advertising will be carry the icon and link to the consumer web tools.