IAB Europe

The dominant pan-European trade body for digital advertising, uniquely positioned as the steward of the TCF — the de facto GDPR consent standard for programmatic advertising in Europe.

IAB Europe is the leading European-level industry association for the digital advertising and marketing ecosystem. Founded in 1997 and headquartered in Brussels, Belgium, it represents national IABs, publishers, agencies, ad tech vendors, and data companies across more than 30 European markets. Its primary mission is to promote the development of a sustainable and effective digital advertising industry through research, education, policy advocacy, and the development of technical standards. IAB Europe is most prominently known as the creator and governing body of the Transparency & Consent Framework (TCF), a technical and policy standard that enables publishers, advertisers, and technology vendors to comply with the EU's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the ePrivacy Directive. The TCF provides a standardized mechanism for collecting, storing, and transmitting user consent signals across the programmatic advertising supply chain. Despite facing regulatory scrutiny from the Belgian Data Protection Authority, IAB Europe has worked to update the framework (TCF v2.x) to address compliance concerns, making it a central piece of infrastructure for the European digital advertising ecosystem. Beyond the TCF, IAB Europe publishes industry research including the annual European Programmatic Market Sizing report, develops best practice guidelines, and coordinates policy positions on issues such as the Digital Markets Act, the Digital Services Act, and cookie regulations. It serves as a critical convening body for the industry, bridging national IABs and global ad tech players with European regulators and policymakers. Its membership spans the full digital advertising supply chain, from DSPs and SSPs to publishers, measurement firms, and creative technology providers.