The U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) accepted a proposed agreement for public comment on Publicis Groupe S.A.’s planned purchase of LiveRamp Holdings, Inc., aiming to preserve rival access to advertising data services and protect customer information.
The commission voted 2-0 on Oct. 19 to issue a complaint and accept the proposed agreement. It is open to public comments for 30 days. After reviewing submissions, the FTC will decide whether to finalize, revise or withdraw the agreement.
Publicis proposes an all-cash purchase of all LiveRamp. The FTC complaint describes the deal’s enterprise value as about $2.2 billion. Publicis’ May announcement priced the offer at $38.50 per share and put its equity value at $2.546 billion. On Oct. 19, Publicis said it still expected the deal to close before the end of 2026.
LiveRamp provides technology for moving data among digital advertising businesses. Publicis plans and buys advertising for clients and operates the Epsilon audience-data business. The FTC alleges that combining the businesses could give Publicis an incentive to steer advertisers away from rival media agencies or limit access or service quality for audience-data competitors. The agency says those effects could raise rivals’ costs or weaken their service. The allegations have not been established as findings that either company broke the law.
Under the proposed order, LiveRamp’s standalone products, services, application programming interfaces and support would have to be offered on fair, reasonable and nondiscriminatory terms. Customers could not be required to buy Publicis services to use LiveRamp, and the companies would have to support connections with third-party platforms. The order would also require written data safeguards, technical controls and access logs.
Publicis’ use of LiveRamp customer data would be restricted unless customers authorize it or a specified exception applies. Exceptions include legal requirements and limited management or administrative functions. The protections would benefit LiveRamp customers and competing agencies and data providers, while Publicis and LiveRamp would take on compliance duties.
If finalized, the order would run for five years from issuance. An independent firm would review compliance twice a year during the first two years after the acquisition, then annually while the order remains in force. A LiveRamp customer could also pay for one annual audit of protections covering its own data. The FTC’s next step is to consider the agreement after the 30-day comment period; no fixed decision date was provided.
