The Czech Presidency of the Council of the EU outlined the position of Austria, France and Italy on the transparency and targeting of political advertising in a document dated 8 September. The position of some 15 other Member States was already detailed in our newsletter of 6 September (see EUROPE 13015/19).
In detail, Italy fully supports a complete ban on the use of targeting or amplification techniques involving the processing of sensitive data. France, for its part, would like to see non-sensitive data that can be processed for targeting and amplification purposes better taken into account in order to anticipate developing and future techniques.
The three Member States are not in favour of specific treatment during election periods. Austria is concerned that such measures will invite politicians and advertising companies to find ways to circumvent the ban. Instead, France believes that specific measures would risk “limiting debates” during the voting period.
In addition, France considers that it would also be beneficial to clarify that the enforcement authorities can be the same as those covered by the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the DSA (see EUROPE 12973/11).
The issue of Member States establishing a register of all representatives, on which Member States seem divided, was raised. On this point, Italy considers that such a measure could “reinforce transparency”, while Austria believes that providers themselves should be obliged to make this information available to the recipients of the service. France is ready to support this provision, but stresses that particular attention should be paid to providers established in third countries.
Several Member States had also called for clarification of the concept of cooperation between Member States. In this respect, France advocates a time limit for the transmission of information between the various competent authorities - “for example, the month before an election” - in order to act more quickly.
See the document: https://aeur.eu/f/33o (Original version in French by Thomas Mangin)