European Media: Media news you missed?

Research evidence excerpt

European Media: Media news you missed?

re part of LiveRamp's assets

before the deal is even closed. However, Hightouch's approach is indeed a reflection of industry

concerns over neutrality if Publicis owns the "rails" of the advertising ecosystem. Despite

assurances that nothing will change following the acquisition, there is a clear inconsistency

between claiming neutrality and claiming competitive advantage. Even if contractual

safeguards remain in place, control of the 'toll booth' theoretically introduces the ability to

prioritise certain flows, potentially giving earlier access to capabilities or tighter integration to

preferred users. The perception of lost neutrality is as important as any real change, particularly

in areas like measurement and data. If the same entity both executes campaigns and provides

measurement infrastructure, questions about independence inevitably arise.

Publicis and The Trade Desk settle dispute over ad tech fees

AdAge, 12/06/26

What happened? Publicis is again recommending The Trade Desk to clients after the two

companies resolved a months-long dispute over alleged hidden ad tech fees and audit findings.

Publicis had stopped recommending TTD in March after claiming the platform improperly

applied DSP fees and charged for automatically applied campaign features, raising broader

questions around transparency and control in programmatic. Omnicom also told clients it

would audit TTD, but said its initial internal review had found no issues.

Our take: This has broadly been seen as a fight over control and ownership of advertiser and

publisher relationships in programmatic advertising. While Publicis CEO Arthur Sadoun said on

the company’s latest results call that Publicis was not planning to offer a competing platform to