Standards, policy & antitrust

Ad tech runs on two kinds of rules: voluntary standards written by industry bodies, and laws written by governments. This track explains who writes each, how files like ads.txt and sellers.json fight fraud, what the courts decided about Google’s ad tech business, and how privacy law differs around the world.

advanced · 4 lessons · 36 minutes

1. 01

   The standards bodies: who writes ad tech’s rules

   IAB, IAB Tech Lab, MRC, TAG, ANA, WFA, Prebid.org, ISBA and ASCI: what each industry body does and why their standards shape every ad you see.

   8 min
2. 02

   ads.txt, sellers.json, schain and ads.cert in depth

   Four IAB Tech Lab standards that let buyers check who is really selling an ad: how ads.txt, app-ads.txt, sellers.json, schain and ads.cert work together.

   9 min
3. 03

   The Google ad tech case, explained

   How the US government proved Google illegally monopolized key ad tech markets, what the 2026 remedies ruling ordered, and how the EU’s €2.95B fine fits in.

   10 min
4. 04

   The global regulation map for ad tech

   GDPR, the DMA and DSA, US state laws, COPPA, India’s DPDP Act, Brazil, China, Japan and Australia: how privacy and platform laws shape ads worldwide.

   9 min

Test yourself: Standards, policy & antitrust quiz