Ad giants, eyeing $13.5bn merger, accept FTC's no-boycott rule

The Federal Trade Commission has paved the way for advertising giants Omnicom Group and Interpublic Group to complete a long-awaited $13.5 billion merger, after the companies agreed that they would not boycott media platforms because of the platforms' political content.

- LAUREN HIRSCH TIFFANY HSU

The agreement, detailed in a consent decree that the FTC announced Monday, is an unusual move by one of the nation's principal antitrust regulators.

As part of the consent decree, Omnicom and Interpublic cannot band together with other ad companies to direct their clients to participate in such boycotts of social media sites, magazines, TV networks or other publishing platforms.

"Coordination among advertising agencies to suppress advertising spending on publications with disfavoured political or ideological viewpoints threatens to distort not only competition between ad agencies, but also public discussion and debate," Daniel Guarnera, director of the FTC's Bureau of Competition, said in a statement.

The consent decree is part of an effort by the Trump administration to use federal agencies to stanch what it considers corporate America's political bias against conservatives.

"It's a clear effort to deliver on the promise of the Trump-Vance programme to use antitrust law to challenge censorship in technical antitrust terms," said Bill Kovacic, a former FTC commissioner.