The Australia Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) has begun to wage a war on the “opacity” surrounding digital advertising.
Peter Leonard, professor of practice at UNSW Business School and principal at Data Synergies, has warned the industry that the ACCC’s inquiry into adtech will get “ugly”.
He highlighted a quote in the report that he thought would particularly agitate the regulator: "Between 20% and 75% advertiser's expenditure is taken up by suppliers in the adtech supply chain.”
“If there's one thing that regulators really hate, it's not actually knowing who's making what money in a market,” Leonard told the Programmatic Summit in Sydney..
“That's opacity from a regulated point of view and because you're in business and they're in government and they're regulators, by definition you're up to something that's probably bad if the regulator doesn't understand it.”
The competition watchdog has officially launched its inquiry, asking for feedback on the competitiveness, efficiency, transparency and effectiveness of adtech services and ad agency services.
Part of the inquiry will look into the role and use of data throughout the adtech supply chain.
Leonard says the industry has done itself no favours over the years when it comes to notice and consent about what data is being collected on consumers.
“We have leaves on the track as we go ahead. The regulators see their task as them clearing away those leaves to make the path clear and easy for consumers,” he says.
“This is not only about the regulation of personal data and regulation on adtech. If you're a digital platform, you're facing the fire on quite a number of fronts.”
Publisher The Guardian has already offered a solution: programmatic receipting.
It suggests that it should be possible for somebody who is putting an advertisement onto The Guardian platform to understand through a series of receipts who took what proportion of the advertising dollar all the way back to the advertising agency.
“Effectively, they're supporting a concept of transparent receipting all the way down the value chain,” Leonard says.
“Of course, the regulators love that idea because that is truly about transparency and then it can start pointing fingers as to who should be doing what.”
The regulator has until August 31, 2021, to hand its report over to the government.
An alternative, he says, is for the industry to come up with its own code, register with the ACCC and self-regulate.
Then the onus doesn’t fall on the government or regulator.
“What's the best way to get industry to self-regulate? Put the fear of God up them and give them a limited timetable to do something otherwise some report will come out that recommends regulation that will be worse than that that industry came up with itself,” he says.
“More than that, as we go into a really complex world - and your adtech world is about as complex as they come, changing all the time - you really don't want to regulate because you'll get it wrong.
“You'll regulate for industry as it looks now and industry in a year or 18 months will look completely different. So much [it’s] better, I think, to force industry through regulatory coercion to regulate itself.”
The ACCC will be taking submissions until April 21.
Have something to say on this? Share your views in the comments section below. Or if you have a news story or tip-off, drop us a line at adnews@yaffa.com.au
Sign up to the AdNews newsletter, like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter for breaking stories and campaigns throughout the day.