“Omnicom and IPG are the third- and fourth-largest media-buying advertising agencies in the U.S. Combined, they will be the world’s largest media-buying advertising agency,” the FTC statement reads.
A combined entity increases the risk that ad media companies in the market may coordinate to push certain policies that may be anticompetitive in nature, the agency said, adding that advertising entities have previously engaged in such activities.
“Advertising agencies have coordinated—including through industry associations—on decisions not to advertise on certain websites and applications,” the statement said.
“Coordination among advertising firms may reduce ad revenues for particular media publishers, forcing those publishers to reduce the amount of content they can offer to their own consumers and their investment in their sites.”
The FTC said it has accepted a proposed consent order that will prevent such “anticompetitive coordination” from Omnicom once its acquisition of IPG is completed.
The order restricts Omnicom from colluding or coordinating to take advertising away from any media publisher based on the publisher’s ideological or political viewpoints, except in situations when the ad client insists on avoiding certain publishers.
“Coordination among advertising agencies to suppress advertising spending on publications with disfavored political or ideological viewpoints threatens to distort not only competition between ad agencies, but also public discussion and debate,” Daniel Guarnera, director of the FTC’s Bureau of Competition, said.
“The FTC’s action today prevents unlawful coordination that targets specific political or ideological viewpoints while preserving individual advertisers’ ability to choose where their ads are placed.”
The proposed agreement is now open to a 30-day public comment period.
The Epoch Times reached out to Omnicom and IPG for comment on the FTC’s restrictions against discrimination underscoring the merger proposal but did not receive a response by publication time.
“We are delighted that our transaction with Interpublic has cleared this significant regulatory hurdle,” he said. “This is an important step toward the completion of the proposed acquisition.”
“We continue to look forward to obtaining the remaining regulatory approvals and closing in the second half of this year, consistent with our expectations when we announced this transaction,” he said.
The FTC’s proposed consent order in the Omnicom–IPG deal is part of the agency’s broader push to prevent censorship in the digital space, affecting both platforms and users.
At the time, FTC Chairman Andrew N. Ferguson said the inquiry would help the agency understand how such companies “may have violated the law by silencing and intimidating Americans for speaking their minds.”
“I hope the conditions imposed on this merger will encourage all advertising firms to adopt similar practices and thereby reduce the temptation to collude to the detriment of their customers, independent journalists, small and independent media companies, consumers, and the American public square.”
