Supporting the Digital Services Act (DSA)

Note: The features outlined in this article will be available starting the week of February 12, 2024. 

The European Union's Digital Services Act (DSA) seeks to regulate online content, transparent advertising, and disinformation by creating a single set of rules across the EU. The expressed purpose of the DSA is to update the European Union's existing legal framework addressing illegal content on intermediaries, and in doing so, harmonize the related national laws that have emerged across the European Union.

Some, though not all, publishers may fall into one of the following categories, as defined by the European Commission:

• Very Large Online Platforms (VLOPs)
• Online Platforms (OPs)
• Hosting Service (HS)

Publishers should work with their legal teams to determine how the DSA applies to them, including which category they belong to (VLOP, OP, HS, or none) and any obligations they may have under DSA. Many publishers will not be a member of any of these categories.

DSA Online Platform obligations take effect in February 2024.

In-ad transparency (optional)

For impacted publishers, we provide tools to show in-ad information, including the name of the advertiser, the ad's targeting settings, and labels on ads served in the EEA.

Turn on in-ad transparency

Complete the following steps to control in-ad transparency information:  

1. Sign in to Google Ad Manager.
2. Click Privacy & messaging.
3. Click  on the European regulations message type card.
4. Select the options you want to apply:
   • (Optional) Show advertiser and targeting information on Reservation ads in EEA: Advertiser name, sponsor, and targeting information will be included for reservation ads in the EEA.

     When enabled, the creative advertiser will be displayed directly as entered in Ad Manager. Publishers should review the advertiser name associated with their reservation creatives to ensure that these names reflect what they want to display to users.
   • (Optional) Ask buyers to only show ads with DSA transparency information on my site or app in EEA: When enabled, Ad Manager will signal to buyers that ads must contain ad badge, advertiser, and targeting information. Ads from buyers that do not affirm that this in-ad information is present will be rejected. Enabling this control may result in significantly reduced ad revenue.
5. Click Save.

These in-ad transparency controls are optional and you can deselect these options to opt out.

Ad Manager Reservations

Reservation ads served in the EEA will include an AdChoices icon and a link to Google's About This Ad page. Publishers must support the AdChoices icon in order to be eligible for Google-hosted Reservation traffic in the EEA and should review guidance on ensuring support for the AdChoices icon on their ads. Publishers will be able to control some of the information displayed on the About This Ad page:

• Advertiser name as entered on the creative
• Sponsor as entered on the creative (optional) 
• Targeting information based on the line item targeting of the reservation; mapped into the following categories:
  • User lists (including audience segments)
  • Geographical
  • Contextual (including device, browser, operating system)

Publisher custom key-value targeting will not be mapped for this purpose.

The following formats won't support displaying this information as of February 2024:

• Non-Google mediation ads
• Creatives on tagless requests
• Header bidding trafficking ads

Google Demand

By default, Google demand that serves in the EEA will include an AdChoices icon and a link to Google's About This Ad page, which includes the name of the advertiser and the primary targeting parameters used. Publishers must support the AdChoices icon in order to be eligible for Google Demand traffic in the EEA and should review guidance on ensuring support for the AdChoices icon on their ads.

Authorized Buyers, Open Bidding, and SDK Bidding partners

Publishers should work with their Authorized Buyers, Open Bidding, and SDK Bidding partners to understand how they plan to support DSA-related obligations, including displaying ad badging and supporting ad transparency for the ads they deliver.

The following information is based on the current draft IAB DSA Transparency specification and is subject to change.

When the "Ask buyers to only show ads with DSA transparency information on my site or app in EEA" control is enabled by a publisher, the following behavior is applied to requests from the EEA:

• Bid requests will include Regs.ext.dsa object with following values:
  • Regs.ext.dsa.dsainfo=2: Required; bid responses without DSA object will not be accepted.
  • Regs.ext.dsa.pubrender=0: Publisher can't render.
  • Regs.ext.dsa.datatopub=0: Do not send transparency data.
• Bid responses that don't include Bid.ext.dsa.adrender=1 will be blocked.

Buyer guidance for integration with IAB DSA spec

When a buyer receives the signal in bid request that DSA transparency must be displayed, they should assess whether they can appropriately display the required information.

If a buyer responds with Bid.ext.dsa.adrender=1, they should ensure they are:

• Displaying an ad badge or indication that the creative content is an ad.
• Providing a method for users to access the following information:
  • Name of the entity on whose behalf the ad is displayed.
  • Name of the advertiser who spent money for the ad, if different from previous name.
  • Meaningful information about the main parameters used to target the ad; can optionally be based on user parameters provided by IAB DSA Transparency specification.

Protection of minors

Publishers with additional obligations toward minor users can utilize our existing tools for users under the age of consent.