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Political Advertising Regulation (PAR)
Status: In force
- In force since 9 April 2024. [Regulation - EU - 2024/900 - EN - EUR-Lex (europa.eu)].
- Application from 10 October 2025; exception: rules prohibiting providers of political advertising services to discriminatorily restrict their services based on the place of residence/establishment of the entities sponsoring political advertising - rules apply since 9 April 2024.
Summary
- EU regulation introducing harmonized transparency requirements for political advertising services and stricter rules on the use of online targeting techniques in the context of political advertising. PAR aims to ensure a high level of transparency in political advertising to protect the integrity of elections and referendums in Europe from targeted manipulation.
Scope
- Applies to political advertising that is disseminated in the Union, brought into the public domain in a Member State or directed to Union citizens, irrespective of the advertiser's place of establishment or the means used (whether online or offline).
- Political advertising refers to paid messages from political actors or other persons if they are liable and designed to influence an election result.
- PAR contains transparency and due diligence obligations for providers, including publishers, and sponsors of political advertising.
Key elements
- Political advertisements must be labelled as such and provide detailed information in a transparency notice, in particular about the sponsor and the amounts paid for the advertisement.
- Online targeting or ad delivery techniques that involve the processing of personal data are only permitted under strict conditions (e.g., explicit consent of the data subject).
- Ban on political advertising sponsored by entities from non-EU countries within the last three months before an election.
- Establishment of a European repository that stores online political advertisements and transparency notices for seven years and makes them publicly available.
- Obligation for publishers in the last month preceding an election or referendum to process notifications they receive about a political advertisement linked to that election or referendum within 48 hours.
- Sanctions: Up to 6 % of the annual worldwide turnover of the sponsor, publisher, or provider of political advertising services.
Challenges
- The term “political advertising”, which is central to PAR’s scope, is broadly defined and difficult to apply (e.g. issue-based ads), which may cause legal uncertainties.
- Additional administrative burden for service providers for complying with comprehensive transparency, due diligence and data protection obligations.
- Concerns about legislative competency for the subject matter regulated by the PAR (Article 114 TFEU).