{"id":9078,"date":"2025-06-23T22:04:08","date_gmt":"2025-06-23T22:04:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/9078\/"},"modified":"2025-06-23T22:04:08","modified_gmt":"2025-06-23T22:04:08","slug":"trumps-ftc-agrees-to-omnicom-merger-with-a-gift-to-x","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/9078\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump\u2019s FTC agrees to Omnicom merger \u2014 with a gift to X"},"content":{"rendered":"

The all-Republican Federal Trade Commission agreed to approve a $13.5 billion ad merger if it includes a ban on steering ad dollars away from platforms or publishers based on \u201cpolitical or ideological viewpoints.\u201d The order, which was reported by The New York Times<\/a> earlier this month, would prevent ad giant Omnicom from wholesale avoiding platforms like X based on their political viewpoints without explicit direction from its advertiser customers. X lost advertisers in 2023<\/a> after placing ads next to pro-Nazi content. <\/p>\n

On Monday, the agency published a proposed consent order<\/a> that it says would \u201cresolve antitrust concerns\u201d over Omnicom\u2019s acquisition of Interpublic Group, which it says are the \u201cthird- and fourth-largest media buying advertising agencies in the U.S.\u201d Under the proposed terms, the newly-merged company could not direct or deny advertisers\u2019 spending on any given platform based on that website\u2019s political or ideological views, or those of the content the ads might run alongside. Advertisers who work with Omnicom can still directly request that the media buying agency avoid certain publishers based on political viewpoints.<\/p>\n

The FTC commonly places conditions on companies seeking to merge through consent orders to prevent anticompetitive effects, but this unusual provision addresses a particular complaint of congressional Republicans and former \u201cFirst Buddy\u201d Elon Musk, whose company X (formerly Twitter) claimed advertisers engaged in an \u201cillegal boycott\u201d<\/a> by pulling ads off the platform in the wake of reports on far-right content and Musk\u2019s own promotion of antisemitic conspiracies<\/a>. The FTC is investigating news outlet Media Matters for encouraging advertisers to drop X; Media Matters sued in response<\/a> today.<\/p>\n

One of Musk\u2019s primary targets was the Global Alliance for Responsible Media (GARM), a voluntary initiative organized by the World Federation of Advertisers that helped companies avoid advertising against illegal or otherwise harmful non-\u201dbrand safe\u201d content. GARM disbanded<\/a> due to limited resources in the wake of the antitrust suit from X. <\/p>\n

The FTC mentions GARM in its complaint<\/a> against the Omnicom merger, saying allowing two major companies to merge could have a similar impact.. \u201cWith one fewer major competitor in the Media Buying Services industry as a result of the Acquisition, the remaining competitors have fewer impediments to coordinating the placement of advertisements, monitoring one another, and punishing one another for taking actions that harm them collectively,\u201d the complaint says.<\/p>\n

The Supreme Court has previously protected the right to boycott<\/a>. But in a statement, Republican Chair Andrew Ferguson claimed the provision would not infringe on advertisers\u2019 First Amendment rights. \u201cThe decree goes to great lengths to avoid interfering with the free, regular course of business between marketing firms and their customers,\u201d Ferguson says. \u201cOmnicom-IPG may choose with whom it does business and follow any lawful instruction from its customers as to where and how to advertise. No one will be forced to have their brand or their ads appear in venues and among content they do not wish.\u201d<\/p>\n

The order, however, says Omnicom can\u2019t maintain any policy that \u201cdeclines to deal with Advertisers based on political or ideological viewpoints\u201d or \u201cdirects Advertisers\u2019 advertising spend based on the Media Publisher\u2019s political or ideological viewpoints.\u201d<\/p>\n

Interpublic CEO Philippe Krakowski called it a \u201cnotable step forward\u201d in the merger process, and Omnicom CEO John Wren said he anticipated closing the deal in the second half of 2025.<\/p>\n

The proposed order was approved by Ferguson and Commissioner Melissa Holyoak, with Commissioner Mark Meador recused from the matter. President Donald Trump previously attempted to fire the agency\u2019s two Democratic commissioners<\/a> and has not yet nominated new ones, leaving the typically bipartisan and five-member agency in the hands of three Republicans.<\/p>\n

Update, June 23rd: <\/strong>Added statements from Omnicom and Interpublic CEOs.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The all-Republican Federal Trade Commission agreed to approve a $13.5 billion ad merger if it includes a ban…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":9079,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[64,50,153,242,10171,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-9078","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-policy","11":"tag-tech","12":"tag-twitter-x","13":"tag-united-states","14":"tag-unitedstates","15":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114734947729219964","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9078","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9078"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9078\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9079"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9078"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9078"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9078"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}