The news: The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced an agreement with Publicis, WPP, and Dentsu requiring the holding companies to discontinue “unlawful collusion that imposed uniform standards on brand safety.” The settlement needs approval from a federal judge to proceed.

• The agreement comes shortly after the FTC began investing the three holdcos for politically-motivated ad buying practices.
• The FTC claimed the companies used data from firms including NewsGuard that designated conservative-leaning sites like X and Breitbart as “misinformation.” The regulator said this allegedly promoted “the demonization of disfavored political viewpoints.”
• The FTC struck a similar agreement with Omnicom and IPG last year preventing the companies from placing “ideological restrictions” on their ad buys as a condition for approval of their merger. NewsGuard has sued the FTC over alleged misconduct tied to the Omnicom-IPG merger.

Marketing feels the heat: Regulators are turning a litigious eye toward perceived bias against conservative voices under the Trump administration. Beyond the conditions imposed on Omnicom and IPG, the FTC previously investigated various advertising groups and watchdogs to determine whether they violated antitrust laws and censored conservative voices through coordinated ad boycotts.

The FTC shifting focus to WPP, Publicis, and Dentsu reaffirms a new reality: Marketers and advertising groups are navigating an environment of heightened regulatory scrutiny where their actions can be perceived as censorship regardless of intent.