Last month on 10 October 2025, new rules on political advertising came into effect across the European Union (“EU”) by way of Regulation (EU) 2024/900 (the “Regulation”) which is focussed on the transparency and targeting of political advertising. The purpose of the Regulation is to help protect the integrity of elections and referendums against targeted manipulation and foreign interference.
The political advertising rules impose obligations on sponsors and publishers of political advertisements, and providers of political advertising services, to ensure that political advertisements are properly and clearly identified and recognisable to audiences. These obligations apply to traditional offline media services, such as newspapers, television and radio, as well as online platforms, such as websites, mobile applications and other digital interfaces.
The European Commission has published helpful guidelines to support the implementation of the new political advertising rules. These guidelines include examples and aids in the interpretation of the Regulation. Ireland has implemented the Regulation by way of S.I. 2025/474 (the “Irish Regulations”), which also came into effect on 10 October 2025.
Grace Period
The Irish Regulations initially included a grace period until 31 October 2025, during which the relevant provisions did not apply This meant the recent Irish presidential election, and the political advertising undertaken on behalf of the nominated candidates during that election cycle, was out of scope for the new rules.
Who does this apply to?
Providers of political advertising services
Political advertising services are defined under Article 3(6) of the Regulation as “natural or legal persons engaging in the provision of political advertising services, with the exception of purely ancillary services”. Examples of providers of political advertising services are advertising agencies, ad-tech and other platforms and influencers.
Providers of political advertising services also have record keeping obligations under Article 9 of the Regulation. Importantly, under Article 6 of the Regulation, providers of political advertising services must ensure that contractual arrangements concluded for political advertising services enable compliance with the political advertising rules.
Political advertising publishers
Political advertising publishers represent a subset of providers of political advertising services, usually at the end of the production chain. They are bound by all of the obligations of political advertising service providers but also have additional obligations to comply with and are defined broadly in Article 3(13) of the Regulation as “a provider of political advertising service that publishes, delivers or disseminates political advertising through any medium”. This includes newspapers, online platforms, radio stations etc.
The most noteworthy obligations for political advertising publishers are the labelling and transparency requirements under Article 11 and 12 of the Regulation. Political advertisements must be made available together with all of the following information in a clear, salient and unambiguous way:
- a statement that it is a political advertisement;
- the identity of the sponsor of the political advertisement and, where applicable, the entity ultimately controlling the sponsor;
- where applicable, the election, referendum, legislative or regulatory process to which the political advertisement is linked;
- where applicable, a statement to the effect that the political advertisement has been subject to targeting or ad-delivery techniques; and
- a transparency notice containing the information referred to in Article 12(1), or a clear indication of where it can be easily and directly retrieved.
Labels should be prominent and enable individuals to easily identify the advertisement as a political advertisement.
Sponsors
Sponsors of political advertising are defined under Article 3(10) of Regulation as “natural or legal persons at whose request or on whose behalf a political advertisement is prepared, placed, promoted, published, delivered or disseminated”. Examples of sponsors are political parties, think-tanks, and elected politicians.
The most important obligation for a sponsor of political advertising under the Regulation is to provide accurate and truthful information to providers of political advertising, so that those providers can comply with their obligations on labelling and transparency around political advertisements.
Additional obligations for VLOPs and VLOSEs
Under the political advertising rules, very large online platforms (“VLOPs”) and very large search engines (“VLOSEs”) must fulfil the general obligations for political advertising publishers, as well as additional responsibilities including the following:
- maintaining a local repository of advertisements;
- making all political advertisements published on their platform available on the new European repository for online political advertisements;
- taking necessary steps to identify, analyse and assess any systemic risks posed by their political advertising services; and
- providing a mechanism for natural or legal persons to notify the platform of any political advertisements which do not comply with the requirements set out in the Regulation.
Rules applying to election periods
Stricter political advertising rules apply in the run up to elections. Per Article 5 of the Regulation, in the last three months preceding an election or referendum organised at EU level or at national, regional or local level in a Member State, political advertising services pertaining to that election or referendum shall only be provided to a sponsor, or service provider acting on behalf of a sponsor, who declares itself to be:
- a citizen of the EU; or
- a third-country national permanently residing in the EU and having a right to vote in that election or referendum, in accordance with the national law of the Member State of residence; or
- a legal person established in the EU which is not ultimately owned or controlled by a third-country national.
It remains to be seen how Ireland will implement this in the next election cycle.
Targeting political advertising
Any targeting or ad-delivery techniques which profile users based on special categories of personal data are prohibited by the Regulation. Targeting shall only be permitted where it is based on personal data collected from the data subjects and with their explicit consent, which we expect will create significant uncertainty until the scope of this is clarified at both an EU and Irish level.
Features of the Irish Regulations
National Competent Authorities
The national competent authorities for the purpose of the Regulation in Ireland are An Coimisiún Toghcháin, Coimisiún na Meán, and the Data Protection Commission. Each regulator has responsibility for different parts of the Regulation:
- An Coimisiún Toghcháin – is the national contact point for the purposes of all aspects of the Regulation. It is also the competent authority for the purposes of Articles 21(4) (register of all legal representatives) and 22(3) and (4) (compliance of providers of intermediary services) of the Regulation.
- Coimisiún na Meán – is designated as the competent authority to supervise the compliance of providers of intermediary services, audiovisual services, sound broadcasting services, relevant online services, and hosting service providers for the purposes of Article 22(3) and (4) of the Regulation.
- Data Protection Commission – is for the purposes of Article 22(1) of the Regulation, the competent authority in respect of Articles 18 and 19 (requirements in relation to targeting and ad-delivery techniques).
The Irish Regulations envisage that An Coimisiún Toghcháin, Coimisiún na Meán and the Data Protection Commission may enter into a co-operation agreement for the purposes of facilitating co-operation in their performance and ensuring consistency in decisions made or steps taken by them.
Authorised officers
Each competent authority may appoint authorised officers for the purpose of the performance of its relevant functions. Authorised officers may inspect premises if he or she has reasonable grounds for believing that a premises is being used in connection with the preparation, placement, promotion, publication, delivery or dissemination, by any means, of a political advertisement. Authorised officers can inspect or take copies of documents at premises as well as other powers usually associated with dawn raids.
Sanctions
Under regulation 11 of the Irish Regulations, any competent authority may issue a compliance notice if it is satisfied that the relevant sponsor or provider has committed an infringement. If this notice is not complied with, the competent authority may apply to the District Court for an order directing compliance. A sponsor or provider will be guilty of an offence if it fails to comply with the compliance notice or causes or permits another person to fail to comply. The sanctions are, on summary conviction, to a class A fine or imprisonment for a term not exceeding 12 months or both, and on conviction on indictment, to a fine not exceeding €50,000 or imprisonment for a term not exceeding three years or both.
Regulation 34 of the Irish Regulations provides that where an offence is committed by a body corporate and it is proved that the offence was committed with the consent or connivance, or was attributable to any wilful neglect, of a person who was a director, manager, secretary or other officer of the body corporate, or a person purporting to act in that capacity, that person, as well as the body corporate, shall be guilty of an offence and may be proceeded against and punished as if he or she were guilty of the first-mentioned offence.
This means that a breach of the rules on political advertising is not in and of itself an offence, but rather not complying once that breach is notified is the offence.
Separate to the possibility of an offence, where an infringement has been committed, the competent authority may impose an administrative financial penalty on the relevant sponsor or provider for the relevant infringement. In this case, notice must be served on the party being fined with reasons for doing so. The party being fined may make submissions and requests for information on the administrative financial penalty. The amount of administrative financial penalty (but excluding a periodic administrative financial penalty) shall not exceed the maximum amounts specified in relation to financial penalties in the Regulation (i.e., 6% of annual income / turnover). A periodic administrative financial penalty shall not exceed a maximum of €1,000 for each day the infringement continues.
Conclusion
The new political advertising rules undoubtably will change the landscape for political advertising – both in print and online. While it will be much more clear to citizens which ads are political, this new landscape is somewhat uncertain for service providers, publishers, and sponsors who await to see how enforcement will play out.
If you have any queries in relation to the new political advertising rules, please contact Simon Shinkwin, Kate McKenna, Laura McDonnell or your usual Matheson contact.