IAB Europe / EASA meet Article 29 Working Party delegation to present pan-European self-regulation to enhance transparency and consumer control over Online Behavioural Advertising

Self-regulation to safeguard consumer privacy and to ensure continued growth and development of the internet

BRUSSELS 16 September 2011:

On Wednesday in The Hague, a delegation from IAB Europe and the European Advertising Standards Alliance (EASA) met the Article 29 Working Party chairman, Jakob Kohnstamm and some representatives from the Article 29 Working Party, (Peter Hustinx, European Data Protection Supervisor, Rafael Garcia Gozalo, Head of the International Department of the Spanish Data Protection Agency and other colleagues). The constructive meeting was the first opportunity that IAB Europe and EASA had to meet and exchange views on the industry self-regulatory regime for Online Behavioural Advertising („OBA‟). For further information see: http://www.youronlinechoices.com/goodpractice.html.

While the transposition of the revised ePrivacy Directive is ongoing at EU Member State level, industry is advancing its self-regulatory regime that aims to enhance transparency and choice for consumers. At the heart of the initiative is a commitment to place a small and easily-recognisable symbol or icon in display advertisements on websites. With one click, this will allow consumers to find out more information and exert greater control over behavioural advertising, including via a pan-European website, http://www.youronlinechoices.eu. This is being made available in many different European languages. The initiative offers consumers and businesses a harmonised approach across Europe to safeguard privacy.

“This new approach fits in with the needs of today’s internet users: information is provided contextually where relevant and is instantly available. We use the dynamism and interactivity of the internet to provide pragmatic privacy control for OBA”, said Stephan Noller, CEO nugg.ad and Chair of IAB Europe‟s Policy Committee.

Angela Mills Wade, Executive Director of the European Publishers Council and Vice Chairman of EASA added: “Our self-regulatory initiative should be viewed as part of an overall set of several measures to implement Article 5.3 of the revised ePrivacy Directive. Some of these measures will be statutory and others self-regulatory which together will ensure an overall package of compliance.”

“We are pleased that we were given the opportunity to explain the core functioning of our initiative to the Article 29 Working Party. We look forward to reviewing the forthcoming Opinion by the Article 29 Working Party on industry's self-regulatory regime. It will be interesting also to see this in the context of their opinion of the new laws that are currently being introduced by Member States”, said Kimon Zorbas, Vice President, IAB Europe.

ENDS

Contacts:

IAB Europe: Kimon Zorbas: vp@iabeurope.eu // +32 (0)494 34 91 68

EASA: Angela Mills Wade: angela.mills@wade.uk.net // +44 1865310732

About IAB Europe

IAB Europe is a federation of national Interactive Advertising Bureaux (IAB) across Europe. Its mission is to promote the growth of the interactive advertising markets on behalf of its clients and national members. Supported by every major media group, advertisers, agency, portal, technology and service provider, its voice represents the interest of more than 5500 company members. IAB Europe coordinates activities across the region including public affairs, benchmarking, research, setting standards and best practices. The member countries are Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, Ukraine and United Kingdom. Our corporate members include Adconion Media Group, Adobe, ADTECH, Advance International Media, Alcatel-Lucent, AOL Advertising Europe, AudienceScience, Banner, BBC Advertising, CNN, comScore Europe, CPX Interactive, Criteo, eBay International Advertising, Emediate, Ernst & Young, Expedia Inc, Fox Interactive Media, Gemius, Goldbach Media Group, Google, GroupM, Hi-media, InSites Consulting, Koan, Microsoft Europe, Millward Brown, MTV Networks International, Netlog, News Corporation, NextPerformance nugg.ad, Nielsen Online, OMD, Orange Advertising Network, Prisa, Publicitas Europe, Right Media, Sanoma Digital, Selligent, Specific Media, The Walt Disney Company, Tradedoubler, Truvo, Turner Europe, United Internet Media, ValueClick, White & Case, Yahoo! and zanox. www.iabeurope.eu

About EASA

The European Advertising Standards Alliance (EASA) is the single authoritative voice of advertising self-regulation. EASA promotes high ethical standards in commercial communications by means of effective self-regulation for the benefit of consumers and business.

As a non-profit organisation based in Brussels, EASA brings together

- 34 national advertising self-regulatory organisations (of which 26 in Europe: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey and the UK)

- and 16 organisations representing the advertising industry in Europe (advertisers: World Federation of Advertisers (WFA); agencies: European Association of Communication Agencies (EACA); media: Association of Commercial Television (ACT), Association of European Radios (AER), Advertising Information Group (AIG), European Association of Directory and Database Publishers (EADP), Association of Television and Radio Sales Houses (egta), European Newspaper Publishers‟ Association (ENPA), European Publishers‟ Council (EPC), Electronic Retailing Association (ERA), European Sponsorship Association (ESA), European Federation of Magazine Publishers (FAEP), Federation of European Direct Marketing (FEDMA), International Advertising Association (IAA), Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB), JCDecaux (outdoor media owner)).

For further information please visit: www.easa-alliance.org.