A coalition of European media companies, telecommunications providers, retailers, marketplaces and advertising technology firms has launched the European Media Marketplace, a new initiative designed to simplify digital advertising across the continent while strengthening Europe’s open web ecosystem.
The marketplace brings together founding members including T Advertising Solutions, part of Deutsche Telekom; Equativ; Experian; Lastminute; Leboncoin and Kleinanzeigen, both part of Adevinta; Orange Advertising; Vinted; Virgin Media O2 and Vodafone.
The initiative is intended to address longstanding challenges in European digital advertising, where fragmented media buying platforms, audience data sources and campaign activation tools have made it difficult for advertisers to execute cross-border campaigns at scale.
Under the new framework, advertisers and agencies will be able to activate campaigns across connected TV, online video, display, native advertising and retail media through a single access point. The marketplace combines first-party audience data with artificial intelligence-powered activation tools while allowing participating publishers and media owners to retain control over their inventory, customer data and commercial relationships.
The coalition said the platform is designed as an open alternative to closed digital advertising ecosystems, emphasizing interoperability, transparency, privacy protection and publisher independence.
By reducing the number of intermediaries involved in digital advertising transactions, the European Media Marketplace aims to increase the value returned to publishers, broadcasters, connected TV platforms, telecommunications companies, retailers and other data owners while providing advertisers with broader access to premium inventory across multiple European markets.
Equativ Chief Executive Officer Arnaud Créput said the marketplace was created to simplify media buying while unlocking the collective scale of Europe’s premium digital ecosystem.
“For too long, buying media across Europe has required navigating dozens of disconnected platforms, fragmented data sources and complex activation paths,” Créput said. “By bringing together premium media, trusted data and AI-powered activation within a single framework, we are unlocking the true scale and value of Europe’s open web.”
The European Media Marketplace will initially launch in the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Spain and Italy, with organizers planning to expand into additional European markets over time.
