The new EU rules on the political advertising entered into force. Meta and Google responded with a halt

On October 10, 2025, the Regulation (EU) 2024/900 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 13 March 2024 on the transparency and targeting of political advertising (TTPA) came into force, introducing strict new transparency and funding rules for political advertising across the Union.

The move follows a series of elections marred by disinformation and foreign interference. In the Romanian presidential election last November, the first round was invalidated based on intelligence reports that allegedly showed Russian involvement in voter influence through social media to bolster support for the then relatively unknown ultranationalist candidate Călin Georgescu. Other elections, such as those in France in June and July 2024 or the Czech general vote in October this year, were also reportedly targeted by Moscow-made disinformation.

To comply with the new rules, all political ads have to carry a visible transparency label identifying the sponsor, the election concerned, and the amount paid, while also banning foreign financing of political advertising within the EU.

According to the European Association of Communications Agencies (EACA), since January 2023, approximately €43.7 million was spent on political advertising across Google, YouTube. Germany topped the list with €11.1 million, followed by Romania (€6.42 million) and Poland (€4.69 million).

Google has responded to TTPA by halting all political advertising in the European Union, citing “legal uncertainties” and an excessively broad definition of political content that it says is impossible to apply reliably at scale. Meta has taken a similar position, calling the new obligations “unworkable.”

As stated in recital 6 of the TTPA, Ad-delivery techniques should be understood as a wide range of optimisation techniques that rely on the automated processing of personal data in order to increase the circulation, reach or visibility of a political advertisement. Such techniques can be used by political advertising publishers and, in particular, by very large online platforms within the meaning of Regulation (EU) 2022/2065 of the European Parliament and of the Council (Digital Services Act), such as Meta and Google's platforms, to deliver political advertisements to a targeted audience based on personal data and on the content of advertisements.

In Commitment 4 of the Code of Practice on Disinformation (now Code of Conduct, integrated in the DSA), online platforms commit to adopt a common definition on political and issue advertising, in line with the Commission proposal on the TTPA. The Cross-Country Analysis of Electoral Advertising on Meta and Google during the EU 2024 Elections report, published in September 2025 by European Digital Media Observatory, provides a comparison of the definitions of political ads in the EU (section 3) as defined in TTPA and by Google and Meta.

EDMO’s data collection also provides insights on ad use and spending by political parties elected to the European Parliament and shows significant variance in use and spending between countries and platforms. In total, almost 30 000 ads were placed and € 8.7 million was spent in political advertising in the run up to the EU elections in the 15 countries included in the study. In 11 of them, including Bulgaria and Romania, in addition to the EP elections, domestic elections (local, regional or federal) were held.

The Dutch parliamentary election on 29 October will be the first to take place under the new rules.