DMA Ad Transparency 2026: Article 5(9) & 6(8) Advertisers

Quick Answer

The EU Digital Markets Act gives advertisers two transparency rights against the largest ad platforms — designated gatekeepers — that most advertisers do not yet exercise: a right to detailed daily pricing data under Article 5(9), and a right to free access to independent measurement under Article 6(8). The DMA designated its first gatekeepers in September 2023 — Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, ByteDance, Meta and Microsoft — with compliance obligations applying from March 7, 2024, and the advertising-relevant gatekeepers include Google, Meta and TikTok among others. Under Article 5(9), a gatekeeper that provides online advertising services must, on the advertiser's request and free of charge, provide each advertiser with daily information about each advertisement, including the price and fees the advertiser paid for the relevant advertising services (including any deductions and surcharges), the remuneration received by the publisher subject to the publisher's consent, and the metrics on which those prices, fees and remuneration are calculated. Article 5(10) provides a parallel right to publishers. Under Article 6(8), a gatekeeper must, on request and free of charge, give advertisers and publishers — and third parties they authorize — access to the gatekeeper's performance-measuring tools and the data, both aggregated and non-aggregated, necessary for them to carry out their own independent verification of the advertising inventory, provided in compliance with the GDPR. Together these provisions let advertisers see what they actually pay and independently verify performance rather than relying solely on the platform's own reporting. Because gatekeepers' implementation of these obligations has been scrutinized and may evolve, confirm current mechanisms against official EU sources. Ground EU obligations with the European Union compliance guide, audit your ad operations with the AI Compliance Audit, and track changes on the Policy Change Tracker.

Scan ad copy for policy triggers — try the free Keyword Risk Checker

DMA Ad Transparency for Advertisers in 2026: Daily Pricing Data Under Article 5(9) and Independent Measurement Under Article 6(8)

What the DMA Gives Advertisers

The Digital Markets Act is best known as a competition law aimed at the largest platforms, but tucked inside it are two provisions that hand advertisers concrete transparency rights they have historically lacked. Where advertisers have long depended on the platform's own dashboards to know what they paid and how their ads performed, the DMA gives them a right to detailed pricing data and a right to verify performance independently.

These rights apply against designated gatekeepers — the small set of very large platforms the European Commission has designated — and they are exercisable on request and free of charge. They turn the relationship between advertiser and platform from one of trust-the-dashboard into one in which the advertiser can audit the numbers.

"For years advertisers could see only what the platform chose to show them. The DMA flips the default for gatekeepers: pricing data and independent measurement become rights the advertiser can demand, not favors the platform grants.
— AuditSocials analysis of the Digital Markets Act"

This guide covers who the gatekeepers are, the daily pricing right under Article 5(9), the independent-measurement right under Article 6(8), and how to turn these into operational leverage. Ground the EU framework with the European Union compliance guide, and define terms in the compliance glossary.

Who the Gatekeepers Are

The DMA's obligations apply only to companies the European Commission has designated as gatekeepers for specific core platform services, so the first step is knowing which platforms are in scope.

The Designated Gatekeepers

Designation	Detail
First designations	September 2023: Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, ByteDance, Meta, Microsoft
Compliance from	March 7, 2024
Later additions	Apple iPadOS (April 2024); Booking (May 2024)
Ad-relevant for these rights	Google (Alphabet), Meta, TikTok (ByteDance), among others

For advertisers, the practically important gatekeepers are the ones that sell online advertising at scale — notably Google, Meta and TikTok — because the Article 5(9) and 6(8) rights attach to gatekeepers providing online advertising services. Because designations and the specific services in scope can change, confirm the current list against official EU sources. For the self-preferencing dimension of the same law, see the DMA Article 6 self-preferencing guide.

Article 5(9): Daily Per-Ad Pricing Data

Article 5(9) addresses a long-standing advertiser frustration: the opacity of what they actually pay once a platform's deductions, surcharges and intermediation are taken into account.

What the Gatekeeper Must Provide

Under Article 5(9), a gatekeeper that supplies online advertising services must, on the advertiser's request and free of charge, provide each advertiser (or third parties authorized by the advertiser) with information on a daily basis about each advertisement placed by that advertiser, concerning:

Price and fees paid: The price and fees paid by the advertiser, including any deductions and surcharges, for each of the relevant online advertising services.
Publisher remuneration: The remuneration received by the publisher, including any deductions and surcharges, subject to the publisher's consent.
Calculation metrics: The metrics on which each of the prices, fees and remuneration are calculated.

The significance is that this exposes the spread — the difference between what the advertiser pays and what the publisher receives — which has historically been invisible in many ad-buying relationships. Article 5(10) gives publishers a parallel right. For advertisers, the data supports reconciliation, fee auditing and negotiation. Audit your ad-spend reconciliation with the AI Compliance Audit, and ground platform rules with the Google Ads policy guide.

Article 6(8): Independent Measurement Access

Article 6(8) tackles a different opacity: the advertiser's dependence on the platform's own measurement of how ads performed, with no independent way to verify it.

The Independent-Verification Right

Access to tools and data: Gatekeepers must provide advertisers and publishers — and third parties they authorize — with access to the gatekeeper's performance-measuring tools and the data necessary to independently verify the advertising inventory.
Aggregated and non-aggregated: The data must include both aggregated and non-aggregated data, so verification is not limited to high-level summaries.
Free of charge and on request: The access is provided upon request and free of charge.
GDPR-compliant: The data is provided in a manner that complies with the GDPR, so personal-data protections still apply.

The point of Article 6(8) is to let advertisers run their own verification and measurement rather than accepting the platform's reporting on faith — a meaningful shift for brands and their measurement partners. Because this data sits close to the core of gatekeepers' business models, the quality and usability of what is provided has been a point of scrutiny, so verify current mechanisms against official sources. For the broader DSA transparency context, see the European Union compliance guide.

Turning Transparency Rights Into Leverage

Rights that go unexercised create no value. The advertisers who benefit from the DMA are the ones who operationalize these provisions rather than filing them away.

Practical Uses

Fee and spread auditing: Use Article 5(9) pricing data to reconcile what you paid against what publishers received, surfacing deductions and surcharges for negotiation.
Independent performance verification: Use Article 6(8) access to run your own or a third party's measurement against the platform's reported performance, checking for discrepancies.
Authorize specialist partners: Both rights allow authorized third parties to act for you, so measurement and audit vendors can exercise the rights on your behalf.
Cross-platform comparison: Standardized, verifiable data across gatekeepers supports apples-to-apples comparison of true cost and performance.

The strategic value is a rebalancing of information: the advertiser is no longer wholly dependent on the seller's account of price and performance. Because implementation varies and is evolving, treat the exercise of these rights as an iterative process and document what you request and receive. Map your exposure and operations with the Legal Compliance Scan, and keep watch on developments through the Policy Change Tracker.

DMA Ad Transparency Checklist

[ ] Identified which of your ad platforms are designated DMA gatekeepers
[ ] Article 5(9) daily pricing data requested for relevant campaigns
[ ] Price, fees, deductions and surcharges reconciled against invoices
[ ] Publisher-remuneration data reviewed where consent allows
[ ] Article 6(8) measurement tools and data access requested
[ ] Independent verification run against platform-reported performance
[ ] Authorized third-party measurement or audit partners where useful
[ ] GDPR compliance confirmed for any personal data accessed
[ ] Requests and responses documented for negotiation and audit
[ ] Current gatekeeper list and mechanisms confirmed against official EU sources

Frequently Asked Questions

What exactly does Article 5(9) of the DMA require gatekeepers to give advertisers?

Article 5(9) of the Digital Markets Act requires a gatekeeper that supplies online advertising services to provide each advertiser, on the advertiser's request and free of charge, with daily information about each advertisement the advertiser placed — specifically the price and fees the advertiser paid, the remuneration the publisher received subject to the publisher's consent, and the metrics on which those figures are calculated — which together expose the economics of the ad transaction that have historically been opaque. Breaking this down, the right attaches to gatekeepers providing online advertising services, so it applies to the large ad-selling platforms designated under the DMA. The information must be provided on a daily basis, which means it is not an annual summary but a granular, ongoing stream that an advertiser can reconcile against its own records. It must be provided free of charge, removing any cost barrier the platform might otherwise impose, and it can be provided to the advertiser or to third parties the advertiser authorizes, which is important because it lets specialist auditing or measurement partners receive the data directly. As to content, the first element is the price and fees paid by the advertiser for the relevant online advertising services, expressly including any deductions and surcharges — this matters because the headline price an advertiser sees often differs from the all-in cost once intermediation fees, deductions and surcharges are accounted for, and Article 5(9) forces those into view. The second element is the remuneration received by the publisher, including deductions and surcharges, subject to the publisher's consent; this is what makes the 'spread' visible — the gap between what the advertiser paid and what the publisher actually received, which in opaque programmatic chains can be substantial. The third element is the metrics on which the prices, fees and remuneration are calculated, so the advertiser can understand not just the numbers but how they were derived. Article 5(10) provides publishers a parallel right to their side of the same information. For advertisers, the practical value is concrete: this data supports reconciliation of spend, auditing of fees, detection of unexpected deductions, and stronger negotiation, because you are negotiating with knowledge of the actual economics rather than the platform's summary. Because the way gatekeepers implement the obligation can vary and evolve, confirm the current mechanism and the format of what is provided against official EU sources. To reconcile and audit your spend, use the AI Compliance Audit, and ground platform-specific rules with the Google Ads policy guide. The organizing principle is that Article 5(9) gives advertisers a daily, free, granular right to the true price, the publisher's remuneration and the underlying metrics, making the previously hidden economics of ad buying visible.

How is Article 6(8) different from Article 5(9), and why does independent measurement matter?

Article 6(8) is different from Article 5(9) in what it makes transparent: Article 5(9) is about money — the prices, fees and remuneration in the ad transaction — while Article 6(8) is about performance, requiring gatekeepers to give advertisers and publishers free access to the gatekeeper's performance-measuring tools and the data, both aggregated and non-aggregated, that they need to independently verify the advertising inventory, which matters because it lets advertisers check the platform's performance claims rather than accept them on faith. Under Article 6(8), a gatekeeper must, on request and free of charge, provide advertisers and publishers — and third parties they authorize — with access to its performance-measuring tools and to the data necessary for those advertisers and publishers to carry out their own independent verification of the ad inventory. Crucially, the data must include both aggregated and non-aggregated data, which prevents the gatekeeper from satisfying the obligation with only high-level summaries that cannot be meaningfully audited; non-aggregated data is what enables genuine independent verification. The access must be provided in a manner that complies with the GDPR, so the right does not override personal-data protections and the gatekeeper must reconcile transparency with privacy. Why does independent measurement matter so much? Because for years advertisers have faced an inherent conflict of interest: the same platform that sells the advertising also measures and reports on how it performed, and the advertiser has had little independent means to verify those reports. That arrangement asks advertisers to trust the seller's grading of the seller's own work. Article 6(8) addresses this by giving advertisers the tools and data to run their own verification, or to have a specialist third party do it, so performance claims about impressions, reach and inventory can be checked against independent measurement. This is significant for brand-safety verification, for detecting discrepancies between reported and actual delivery, and for building cross-platform measurement that does not depend solely on each platform's walled-garden reporting. The provision is also notable because this kind of measurement data sits close to the core of gatekeepers' business models, which is precisely why advertisers historically could not get at it and why the quality and usability of what gatekeepers provide under Article 6(8) has been a point of scrutiny. For advertisers, the practical step is to request access, ideally through a measurement partner authorized to act on your behalf, and to compare the independent results against the platform's reporting, documenting any discrepancies. Because implementation is evolving, verify current mechanisms against official EU sources. To ground the broader EU transparency framework, see the European Union compliance guide, and audit your measurement operations with the AI Compliance Audit. The organizing principle is that Article 5(9) reveals the money while Article 6(8) enables independent performance verification, ending the advertiser's sole dependence on the platform grading its own work.

Which platforms do these DMA advertising rights apply to?

The DMA advertising rights in Articles 5(9) and 6(8) apply to companies the European Commission has designated as gatekeepers that provide online advertising services, and for advertisers the practically important ones are the large ad-selling platforms — notably Google (Alphabet), Meta and TikTok (ByteDance) — though the full designated set is broader and the specific services in scope should be confirmed against official EU sources. The DMA works by designation: rather than applying to all platforms, it applies to a small number of very large 'gatekeepers' that the Commission has formally designated for specific 'core platform services.' The first designations came in September 2023, naming six gatekeepers — Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, ByteDance, Meta and Microsoft — across a set of core platform services, with the substantive obligations applying from March 7, 2024. Subsequent designations added Apple's iPadOS in April 2024 and Booking in May 2024. Not every gatekeeper is equally relevant to the advertising-transparency rights, however, because Articles 5(9) and 6(8) attach to gatekeepers in their capacity as providers of online advertising services. The gatekeepers that sell online advertising at significant scale — Google through its advertising services, Meta across its platforms, and TikTok through ByteDance — are therefore the ones where these advertising rights are most directly exercisable, while a gatekeeper designated only for non-advertising services would be relevant under other DMA provisions rather than these. For an advertiser, the practical implication is to identify which of the platforms you buy advertising from are designated gatekeepers providing online advertising services, because those are the ones against which you can assert the daily pricing right and the independent-measurement right. It is also worth understanding that the DMA is a moving framework: designations can be added or adjusted, the Commission continues to scrutinize compliance, and the precise core platform services in scope for each gatekeeper can change, so a current check against official EU sources is part of exercising the rights correctly. Advertisers operating across multiple gatekeepers gain a particular benefit, because standardized transparency rights across platforms support genuine cross-platform comparison of true cost and verified performance, something the walled-garden status quo has frustrated. For the self-preferencing dimension of the DMA that also affects advertiser workflows, see the DMA Article 6 self-preferencing guide, and map your exposure with the Legal Compliance Scan. The organizing principle is that the rights apply to designated gatekeepers providing online advertising services — most relevantly Google, Meta and TikTok — and the current designations and in-scope services should be confirmed against official EU sources.

Can a third party exercise these DMA rights on an advertiser's behalf?

Yes — both Article 5(9) and Article 6(8) expressly contemplate that third parties authorized by the advertiser can receive the pricing data and exercise the measurement-access right, which is operationally important because it lets specialist auditing, measurement and verification partners act on the advertiser's behalf rather than requiring the advertiser to build that capability in-house. This authorized-third-party mechanism is one of the most practically valuable features of the DMA's advertising-transparency provisions, and it is easy to overlook. Article 5(9) provides that the gatekeeper must supply the daily pricing information to each advertiser or to third parties authorized by the advertiser, and Article 6(8) provides access to performance-measuring tools and data to advertisers and publishers as well as third parties authorized by them. The reason this matters is that the data these provisions unlock — granular daily pricing with deductions and surcharges, and non-aggregated performance data for independent verification — is most useful when processed by specialists who can reconcile, analyze and verify it. Many advertisers do not have in-house teams capable of running independent ad measurement or auditing complex programmatic fee structures, but specialist measurement firms, ad-verification vendors and auditors do. By authorizing such a partner, an advertiser can have the partner receive the Article 5(9) pricing stream and the Article 6(8) measurement access directly and perform the verification, turning a legal right into an operational capability without building it internally. This also supports cross-platform work: a single measurement partner authorized across multiple gatekeepers can assemble a comparable, verified view of cost and performance across platforms, which is far more valuable than siloed per-platform dashboards. There are practical disciplines to observe. The authorization should be clear and documented, so the gatekeeper can confirm the third party's standing to receive the data. Any access involving personal data must comply with the GDPR, so the advertiser and its partner must handle that data lawfully, consistent with the provision's GDPR requirement. And because gatekeeper implementation of these obligations varies and evolves, the advertiser and its partner should document what was requested and received, both to support negotiation and to create a record if the data provided appears inadequate. For an advertiser, the strategic takeaway is that you do not need to choose between exercising these rights yourself and not exercising them at all; you can route them through a partner equipped to extract value. To map how these rights fit your operations and obligations, use the Legal Compliance Scan, and to audit the data you receive use the AI Compliance Audit. The organizing principle is that authorized third parties can exercise both rights for you, so specialist partners can convert the DMA's pricing and measurement entitlements into real auditing and verification capability.

How should advertisers operationalize these rights in 2026?

Advertisers should operationalize the DMA's transparency rights in 2026 by treating them as a recurring audit and negotiation practice rather than a one-time request: identify which of your platforms are designated gatekeepers, request the Article 5(9) pricing data and Article 6(8) measurement access (directly or through an authorized partner), reconcile and verify what you receive, and document the process — while accepting that implementation is uneven and evolving. The first step is scoping. Determine which of the platforms you advertise on are designated gatekeepers providing online advertising services, because that is where the rights attach; for most advertisers this centers on Google, Meta and TikTok, but confirm the current designations against official EU sources. The second step is requesting. Both rights are exercisable on request and free of charge, so build the requests into your operations: ask for the Article 5(9) daily pricing data for your relevant campaigns and for Article 6(8) access to performance-measuring tools and data, and decide whether to authorize a measurement or audit partner to receive and process them on your behalf, which is often the most efficient route. The third step is reconciliation and verification, which is where the value is realized. Use the Article 5(9) data to reconcile what you actually paid — including deductions and surcharges — against your invoices and, where publisher consent allows, against publisher remuneration, surfacing the spread and any unexpected fees for negotiation. Use the Article 6(8) access to run independent measurement against the platform's reported performance, checking for discrepancies in delivery, reach or inventory, ideally via a specialist partner using the non-aggregated data the provision requires. The fourth step is documentation. Keep a record of what you requested, what you received, the format and completeness of the response, and any discrepancies, because that record supports both commercial negotiation and any escalation if the data provided is inadequate — and because gatekeeper implementation of these obligations has been scrutinized, an evidentiary trail matters. The fifth step is to make this recurring. Pricing and performance shift continuously, the daily nature of the Article 5(9) right is designed for ongoing reconciliation, and designations and mechanisms evolve, so a periodic cadence beats a single audit. Finally, manage expectations: the quality and usability of what gatekeepers provide can be uneven because this data sits near the core of their business models, so treat exercising these rights as an iterative process and confirm current mechanisms against official EU sources as they change. To ground the broader EU framework see the European Union compliance guide, to map your obligations use the Legal Compliance Scan, and to track changes use the Policy Change Tracker. The organizing principle is to operationalize the rights as a recurring scope-request-reconcile-verify-document loop, routed through authorized partners where useful, rather than as a one-off, because that is what converts the entitlements into real cost and performance leverage.

Don't miss the next policy change.

Create a free account — track every policy change across 8 platforms, get instant alerts, and access every free compliance tool. Or try our Keyword Risk Checker first.

Create Free Account

Report Keywords — Run AI Compliance Audit

#Digital Markets Act#DMA#Ad Transparency#Gatekeepers#Ad Measurement#Pricing Data#EU Regulation#Ad Verification#Advertisers#2026 Policy#European Union#Compliance Guide 2026

Share This Report

Tweet Share

The FTC Consumer Review Rule in 2026: Fake Reviews, AI Testimonials and Fake Social Proof

The FTC's Consumer Review Rule bans fake and AI-generated reviews, purchased social proof and review suppression — and 2026 warning letters signal active enforcement.

FTC 'Made in USA' Enforcement in 2026: The July Warning Letters and Origin Claims on Social Media

The FTC's July 2026 'Made in USA' warning letters show origin claims are an active enforcement priority — and the 'all or virtually all' standard applies to social posts and hashtags too.

California's AI Transparency Act (SB 942) in 2026: Manifest and Latent Disclosure, Detection Tools and the August Start Date

California's AI Transparency Act makes large generative-AI providers offer detection tools and embed provenance in AI images, video and audio — reshaping AI ad creative labelling.

Platforms

Industries

Knowledge

Blog

DMA Ad Transparency for Advertisers in 2026: Daily Pricing Data Under Article 5(9) and Independent Measurement Under Article 6(8)