Trump’s FTC agrees to Omnicom merger — with a gift to X

The fully republican Federal Federal Commerce Commission has agreed to approve a merger of ads of $ 13.5 billion if it includes the ban on directing advertising dollars of platforms or publishers based on “political or ideological points of view”. The order, which was reported by The New York Times Earlier this month, would prevent the Omnicom advertising giant from avoiding wholesale platforms like X according to their political views without explicit orientation of its advertiser customers. X lost advertisers in 2023 after placing announcements next to the pro-Nazi content.

On Monday, The Agency Published A proposed order that it knows would “resolve antitrust concerns” over Omnicom’s Acquisition of Intepublic Group, Which It Says Are the “Third- and Foundth-Largest Media Buying Advertising Agency in the US” Company COULD NOT DIRECT OR DENY Advertisers’ Spending On Any Given PLAFORM BASED ON THAT POLITICAL OR IDEOLICAL Views, or Those of the content the ads might run next. Advertisers who work with Omnicom can always ask the media purchase agency directly to avoid certain publishers based on political points of view.

The FTC Commonly Places Conditions On Companies Seeking to Merge Through Converse Orders to Prevent anti -competitive effects, but this unusual provision addresses a particular complaint of congressal republicans and form “first buddy” elon musk, whose company x (formly twitter) claimed advertisers engaged in an “illegal boycott” by Pulling Ads Off the Platform in the Wake of Reports on Far-Right Content and Musk’s Own Promotion of Antisemitic Plots. The FTC Survey on press media information to encourage advertisers to lower X; Media Matters continued in response today.

One of the main objectives of Musk was the Global Alliance for Responsible Media (GARM), a voluntary initiative organized by the World Federation of Advertisers which helped companies to avoid advertising against illegal or non-security content. “Garm has dissolved due to limited resources following the antitrust combination of X.

The FTC mentions Garm in his complaint against the Omnicom merger, saying that allowing two large companies to merge could have a similar impact. “With a major major competitor in the media purchase services industry due to the acquisition, the remaining competitors have fewer obstacles to coordinate them to place advertisements, monitoring each other to take the others to be concerned about them,” said the complaint.

The Supreme Court previously protected the right to boycott. But in a statement, Republican President Andrew Ferguson said that the provision would not relate to the rights of advertisers’ advertisements. “The decree is lengthwise to avoid interfering with the free and regular course between marketing companies and their customers,” explains Ferguson. “Omnicom-IPG can choose with whom he does business and follow any legitimate instruction of his customers to find out where and how to advertise. No one will be forced to reveal their brand or their announcements in the premises and among the content they do not wish. ”

The order says, however, that Omnicom cannot maintain any policy which “refuses to treat advertisers according to political or ideological points of view” or “directs the advertising expenses of advertisers based on the political or ideological views of the media publisher”.

The proposed order was approved by Ferguson and Commissioner Melissa Holyoak, Commissioner Mark Meador challenged the issue. President Donald Trump had previously attempted to dismiss the two agency democratic commissioners and have not yet appointed new ones, leaving the typically bipartite agency and five members in the hands of three Republicans.