FTC Settles Antitrust Suit with WPP, Publicis, Dentsu

The Federal Trade Commission announced a settlement on Wednesday with three major advertising agencies, WPP, Publicis, and Dentsu, resolving allegations that they violated antitrust laws by coordinating policies to limit ad placements on certain online platforms.

The agencies agreed to refrain from establishing joint brand safety standards or using shared exclusion lists to restrict advertising based on the political or social content of publishers. The settlement, which requires court approval in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas, does not include any admission of wrongdoing by the companies. Eight states, including Florida, Indiana, Iowa, Montana, Nebraska, Texas, Utah, and West Virginia, joined the FTC in the agreement.

According to the FTC's complaint, the agencies collaborated on guidelines aimed at avoiding ads next to content deemed misinformation or extremist, which allegedly reduced revenue for sites like Breitbart and Elon Musk's social media platform X. The probe focused on whether such coordination distorted competition in the digital advertising market by making it harder for certain publishers to attract ad dollars.