The Federal Trade Commission has approved Publicis Groupe’s $2.2 billion acquisition of LiveRamp, clearing a key hurdle in finalizing the deal.
The order, issued Tuesday (Oct. 20), comes with strict guidelines Publicis must adhere to for the next five years in an effort to ensure competitors have “neutral and nondiscriminatory access to LiveRamp Holdings Inc.’s products and services,” the FTC release stated.
To do that, the holding company must establish firewalls to bar itself from accessing competitors’ customer data via LiveRamp. In the release, the FTC said these measures are meant to “preserve competition in the digital advertising ecosystem.”
“ This order will ensure that Publicis does not gain an unfair advantage over its competitors in the digital advertising marketplace,” said David Shaw, principal deputy director of the FTC’s Bureau of Competition.
