European ad industry pushes new tracking, transparency rules

European advertisers have begun hopping on board with a new set of guidelines (PDF) that will allow users to block cookie tracking. The rules, developed by an industry group called the Internet Advertising Bureau Europe (IAB Europe), come just over a month before Europe is expected to issue its own legal guidelines for online advertisers.

The self-regulatory framework isn’t just about avoiding being tracked—the goal is to offer transparency to consumers about which sites are using their cookie data, when, and for what purpose. Participating companies will display an icon on their behaviorally tracked advertisements that signifies that they’re participating in the Online Behavioural Advertising (OBA) Framework. When people click the icon, they’ll be able to get more information about the ads and have the option to turn off the ad’s tracking element.

“The OBA Framework will introduce cross-industry self-regulation for behavioural advertising across Europe, backed up by a compliant and enforcement mechanism,” IAB Europe president Alain Heureux said in a statement. “This initiative is the culmination of 18 months planning and collaboration with European organisations representing advertisers, agencies, publishers and advertising standards.”

Indeed, nearly 40 companies have already signed the pledge to begin implementing the OBA guidelines, including AOL, Google, Microsoft, and Yahoo. Additionally, IAB Europe says it worked closely with the European Commission in order to develop the rules so that they’ll mesh with the Commission’s own ad transparency guidelines when they are released on May 25.

“If this code ensures that they are fully compliant with their legal obligations under the new e-privacy directive, all well and good,” European Commission spokesperson Jonathan Todd told Reuters.

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