The Advertising Middlemen Endangering Rigorous Internet Competition Accountability Act (AMERICA Act) would amend the Clayton Act to reform how digital advertising trading operates in the United States. It creates a new Section 8A focused on competition and transparency in digital ad exchanges, brokerages, and related activities. The bill sets up a framework to reduce conflicts of interest and curb vertical integration by imposing ownership restrictions on very large players, requiring certain duties and disclosures for large brokers, and establishing a robust enforcement mechanism with both government and private rights of action. The aim is to promote fair access, transparency, and better outcomes for advertisers, publishers, and overall competition in the digital ad market. The act also introduces a detailed divestiture regime for companies that hold large digital ad revenues, including deadlines, review procedures by the Attorney General, and potential court-ordered divestitures to restore competitive balance. It creates an Antitrust Consumer Damages Fund to receive and distribute damages recovered in enforcement actions and sets extensive data and privacy safeguards around information exchanged between brokerages and customers. Overall, the bill would significantly increase regulatory oversight and potential structural changes for major players in the digital advertising ecosystem.
Key Points
- 1Creation of new competition and transparency rules for digital advertising, including definitions for brokerage customers, buy-side and sell-side brokerages, digital advertising exchanges, and digital advertising revenue.
- 2Prohibitions on very large players (those with more than $20 billion in digital ad revenue in the prior year) from owning certain digital ad assets or structures (e.g., owning both an exchange and a sell-side or buy-side brokerage, or owning a brokerages if they are a seller of ad space), to prevent conflicts of interest and vertical integration.
- 3Duties and transparency requirements for large revenue holders (>$5 billion in digital ad revenue): best interest and best execution duties for brokerages, extensive data-disclosure and privacy protections, retention of records, firewall requirements, fair access obligations for exchanges, precise time synchronization, ownership of customer order data, and quarterly public reports on routing practices with detailed metrics; plus annual certification of compliance.
- 4Enforcement framework and remedies: civil actions by the Attorney General and state attorneys general with injunctive relief and damages, creation of an Antitrust Consumer Damages Fund to hold and distribute damages to harmed parties, and a private right of action for brokerage customers harmed by knowing violations, including a substantial damages provision and no class-action waiver.
- 5Divestiture process and oversight: a structured process for required divestitures, including filing with the Attorney General, AG review and timing, a divestiture deadline, AG guidance, and the possibility of compulsory investigative demands to assess competitive effects.