Dentsu, Publicis and WPP will discontinue their "brand safety" standards, according to a Federal Trade Commission announcement dated April 15, 2026, as reported by MediaPost.

The decision removes three of the world's largest agency holding companies from a set of shared brand safety practices that advertisers have relied on to control where their ads appear online. The FTC action targets the standards by name, and all three companies named in the matter have agreed to discontinue them.

What do the discontinued standards cover?

"Brand safety" standards are the rules and thresholds agencies apply to keep client advertising away from content deemed unsuitable — hate speech, misinformation, piracy sites and similar categories. Holding-group-level standards matter because a single policy can shape ad placement decisions across thousands of client accounts and billions in media spend.

With Dentsu, Publicis and WPP stepping away from these standards, advertisers who relied on holding-group-level brand safety policies will need to look elsewhere for that function — whether at the individual agency level, at independent verification vendors, or inside their own organizations.

Who is affected?

The decision touches three parties named by the FTC:

• Dentsu — the Japanese holding company
• Publicis — the Paris-based group
• WPP — the London-headquartered holding company

Each will discontinue the brand safety standards identified in the FTC matter. MediaPost reported the development on April 15, 2026.

Why does the FTC care about brand safety rules?

The FTC's involvement signals a concern at the regulatory level with how these standards were set, applied, or coordinated among major buyers. The announcement dated April 15, 2026 puts the industry on notice that shared brand safety frameworks among large agency groups can attract antitrust scrutiny.

The full details of the FTC's reasoning were not contained in the headline announcement, and Mart Signal will follow the agency's release and the companies' responses as they become available.

What happens next?

For advertisers working with any of the three holding companies, the practical question is what replaces the discontinued standards at the account level. For the broader market, the April 15, 2026 decision sets a precedent: coordinated brand safety policies among major agency groups are now a regulatory exposure, not just an operational choice.

Independent verification firms and in-house brand safety teams may see fresh demand as the holding-company frameworks wind down.