Thank you to The Lisbon Council for hosting this event and the opportunity to share Google's perspective. Protecting users, while supporting a thriving ad ecosystem that helps businesses and enables access to an open internet is crucial. A big thank you to David Osimo for facilitating, and to all of the speakers involved for providing important views.
With the digital services act in force and the digital fairness act expected in 2026, the European Commission is working to avoid abuse of personal data in #advertising and ensure consumers’ empowerment while not hindering their convenience or the competitiveness of European companies. But what does it mean in practice? How can we design a regulatory framework that drives competitiveness, productivity, ensures safety and consumer convenience? As the consultation on the digital fairness act aiming to tackle this approaches, The Lisbon Council convened the High-Level Working Lunch: Europe's Competitiveness and Digital Advertising: Balancing Opportunities and Risks, an invitation-only forum for policymakers, industry leaders and experts to discuss how Europe can protect consumers while preserving a competitive digital economy. Keerat Sharma, vice-president of ads privacy and safety at Google, opened the conversation by sharing Google's vision on the future of digital advertising and presenting new economic impact data. Maria-Myrto Kanellopoulou, head of unit, consumer law, directorate-general for justice and consumers, European Commission, offered her policy perspective on the evolving regulatory landscape. Immediately after, high-level participants heard from Maryant F., head of digital policy, European Consumer Organisation, who highlighted concrete, real-world concerns and priorities of European consumers. Other outstanding participants included Peter Craddock, partner, data, cyber and tech law, Keller and Heckman; Victoria de Posson, secretary general, European Tech Alliance; Natascha Gerlach CIPP/E, director for privacy policy, Centre of information Policy Leadership; Enrico Girotto, director for public affairs, Federation of European Data and Marketing; Constantin Gissler, director general, DOT Europe; Horst Heitz, executive director, SME Europe; Daniel Knapp, chief economist, IAB Europe; Egle Markeviciute, EU affairs manager, Consumer Choice Center Europe; Fausto Matos, policy assistant and member of the cabinet of Executive Vice-President and Commissioner Henna Virkkunen, European Commission; Vasco Pereira da Silva, head of policy, Allied for Startups; Konrad Shek, director, public policy and regulation, Advertising Association; and Denis Sparas, deputy head of unit, digital markets, directorate-general for communications networks, content and technology, European Commission. More at https://lnkd.in/dueGG8pA
