The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) has officially released its updated General Terms for Digital Advertising Agreements—and the organization is opening a 60-day public comment period until July 21, 2025.
The IAB standard terms and conditions (T&Cs) were originally created in May 2001, but according to the company, digital advertising media buys have not kept up with changes in technology, transaction types, or platform capabilities, which has led to legal burdens, slowed the process, and resulted in more complex negotiations.
According to IAB, the 3.0 version of T&Cs has been in market since 2010, while the terms for Coredge and lead gen, as well as video, have been used in market since around 2015.
“This is an opportunity for the broader IAB community and the digital ad industry to address the tremendous changes that have happened in the digital advertising landscape since then,” Michael Hahn, evp and general counsel, IAB and IAB Tech Lab, told ADWEEK. “In light of that changing landscape, there are a lot more different parts of the distribution chain than previously existed.”
The new and clearer foundation for digital ad transactions means buys can happen quicker and with less hassle, whether through direct buy or programmatic buying. The terms also aim to provide easier engagement with different vendors to support digital ad transactions, like measurement and ad verification providers.
“What we’re trying to address is a more holistic and broader set of relationships that exists in the digital ad distribution chain,” Hahn said. “There are certain things that you see over and over again in contracts—and can we standardize around a core set of terms and then create modularity and different addendums that address different types of deals that build on top of that?”
According to Angelina Eng, vp, measurement, addressability & data center, IAB, the company is aware that there are certain aspects, like the number of days of a certain term, that require flexibility.
“We’ve incorporated the opportunity to put together some scenarios of different timings of certain things and when they need to be delivered—and offer a set of flexibilities so that companies don’t have to be so rigid,” Eng said. “There is the option to select a different number of days for different types of deals and contracts.”
Updated terms for efficient transactions
The updated terms were worked on for over a year by 276 IAB member companies, including major holding companies like Omnicom and Publicis, as well as independent agencies such as Butler/Till and Canvas Worldwide, brands like Unilever and Bayer, and media publishers like Hearst and NBCUniversal, top ad tech firms, and law firms.
These terms are meant to support a full range of today’s digital transactions and include a standardized foundation for most deal types, which will make it easier to transact efficiently. More business-specific terms will be addressed in a separate addendum, which will be customized to each transaction type, developed in parallel by IAB’s Terms & Conditions Task Force.
Eng said IAB is currently working on various different forms of addendums that will be released over the next few years, and noted that it will focus more on financial and legal obligations. She added that they will also be looking at direct buys, programmatic guarantees, private marketplace deals, sponsorship contracts, and other topics.
According to Eng, there will be another draft for direct buys that will come out in the next few months, which can be released either at the end of the year or early next year.
“These are core terms that are your foundational set of terms, and then we are going to have those various different agendas that we’ve listed in the cover page on various different scenarios,” Eng said.
IAB is inviting all industry stakeholders to review and comment on the new general terms by July 21, 2025. Feedback is expected to shape the final version, which IAB anticipates will be a new foundation for digital advertising agreements within the industry.
“An update to T&Cs is long overdue, and I’m glad to see this coming out of IAB,” Christy Loftus, svp, data logistics, Canvas Worldwide, said in a statement. “Standardizing how we approach advertising agreements allows for greater consistency and gives the industry a baseline on the expectations for all sides of media.”