EACA joins Platform Observatory

To promote fair, transparent and balanced trading practices between online platforms and advertising and media agencies, EACA has joined the Observatory on Online Platform Economy – a specialised online forum set up by the European Commission.

Over time, EACA has been advocating for agencies to be included within the scope of the Platform-to-Business (P2B) Regulation (see the position paper). However, as the negotiations stand, agencies are unlikely to be included in the scope of the new legislation and therefore cannot benefit from the increased transparency that it will bring for businesses regarding their relations with online platforms. In a meeting last summer, Werner Stengg, Head of Unit at the European Commission, invited EACA to join the Observatory as one of their first tasks will be to look at the issues that the advertising sector is facing.

The purpose of the Observatory is to look into any harmful business practices of the online platform economy in order to help define the future direction of EU legislation and policy. The Observatory consists of 15 academic experts and an online forum, which enables other experts and stakeholders, such as EACA, to provide input and feedback and to be invited to specific workshops and hearings. In their draft report on the P2B Regulation, the European Parliament envisages the Observatory to assume a significant role in identifying unfair practices and making recommendations for the future review of the Regulation.

EACA wishes to contribute to the work of the Observatory’s online forum by advocating for fair, transparent and balanced trading practices between online platforms and advertising and media agencies. EACA calls for data given by online platforms to be verifiable. EACA regards it important that the problems that the advertising face continue to be voiced at the EU level.