Supporting the Digital Services Act (DSA)

Some, though not all, publishers may fall into one of the following categories, as defined by the European Commission:

• Very Large Online Platforms (VLOPs)
• Online platforms (OPs)
• Hosting service (HS)

Ad badging for reservations

Publishers have per-creative control on whether ad badging is displayed by Google for reservation creatives. For creatives with badging enabled, publishers have network-level control over whether this badging shows only for users in the European Economic Area (EEA) or for users worldwide.

Google Ad Manager’s ad badging solution includes an AdChoices icon and a link to Google’s 'About this ad' page. Publishers can control some of the information displayed on the 'About this ad' page using the steps in the 'In-ad transparency' section of this article.

Creative control

In the 'Creative' settings, publishers can select whether ad badging is shown using the 'Show ad badging on this creative' setting.

• When enabled, badging will be shown on this creative. Badging will be shown only in the EEA or for users worldwide, based on the publisher’s network settings.
• When disabled, badging will not be shown on this creative.
• This doesn't apply to creatives served with 100% SOV sponsorship campaigns through Ad Manager, unless the user is in the EEA.

This setting will be enabled by default for all creatives except for third-party creatives, video redirect creatives and audio redirect creatives.

Where publishers disable ad badging, ads must comply with applicable regulatory requirements for ads served in the European Economic Area (EEA). This includes a mechanism for users to report illegal content. Publishers must notify Google of any illegal content reports using the appropriate form.

The following formats don’t support Google ad badging:

• Non-Google mediation ads
• Creatives on tagless requests
• Header bidding trafficking ads

In-ad transparency (optional)

For impacted publishers, we provide tools to show in-ad information, including the name of the advertiser, the ad's targeting settings and labels on ads served in the EEA.

Turn on in-ad transparency

Complete the following steps to control in-ad transparency information:  

1. Sign in to your AdSense account.
2. Click Privacy & messaging.
3. Click  on the European regulations message type card.
4. Select the options that you want to apply:
   • (Optional) Ask buyers to only show ads with DSA transparency information on my site in EEA: When enabled, AdSense will signal to buyers that ads must contain ad badge, advertiser and targeting information. Ads from buyers that do not affirm that this in-ad information is present will be rejected. Enabling this control may result in significantly reduced ad revenue.
5. Click Save.

Protection of minors

Publishers with additional obligations toward minor users can utilise our existing tools for users under the age of consent.