Brussels (18 November 2025): The European Interactive Digital Advertising Alliance (EDAA) welcomed industry leaders, policymakers, technologists, academics, and regulators to Brussels on 18 November, for the 2025 edition of the EDAA Summit, themed: “The Value Exchange: Responsible Personalisation for a Fair Digital Future”.
As AI-driven innovation booms alongside evolving regulatory expectations across Europe and beyond, this year’s theme could not have felt more timely. In a digital ecosystem constantly being reshaped by new legislation, new political realities, and new consumer demands – this year’s Summit centred on a core question: How do we ensure value for everyone in the online world?
The answer, as the day demonstrated, lies in responsible innovation, meaningful transparency, and an ecosystem-wide commitment to shared standards.
Relive the Moment with our Aftermovie Below
Summit Highlights
A Changing Digital Landscape: Setting the Tone for the Day
The Summit opened with a warm welcome from Conor Murray, Head of Regulatory Affairs at egta, followed by an insightful keynote from Joe Jones of the IAPP. Both speakers highlighted the complexity of today’s digital environment — a space where technological innovation, user expectations, and regulatory obligations increasingly intersect.
Joe Jones reflected on his notion of “digital entropy”, with digital organisations today living with the disorder, pressure and uncertainty that exist with the panoply of digital laws and policies. When going through the experience of constant change, organisations cannot wait for legislation to tell them how to do things – they must already be responding to what society and customers demand. He dived into the dual challenge of maintaining user trust while navigating a fast-moving regulatory landscape, particularly as scrutiny tightens around AI use, data processing, and advertising transparency.
One key takeaway from Joe’s intervention stood out to those following the EDAA’s agenda in this space: “self-regulation is a really important response to ordering the disorder of digital entropy.”
Watch Joe Jones reflects in our exclusive interview on the notion of “digital entropy,” describing the complexity companies and organisations face while navigating through digital laws and policies.
DSA in Practice: Two Years In, Where Do We Stand?
A highlight of the morning was the session “DSA in Practice: Guidance, Implementation, Enforcement”, bringing together perspectives from renowned legal experts (SKW Schwarz), the European Commission (DG CONNECT), IAB Europe, and major industry player Adform.
The panel explored how the Digital Services Act has been put into practice in the nearly two years since it was first introduced. Speakers analysed the ongoing push for harmonised legal interpretation and enforcement across Member States, touching on the delicate balance between regulatory ambition and Europe’s competitiveness on the global stage. Compliance, while resource intensive for European businesses, is key to gaining a competitive edge, demonstrating willingness towards regulators, and building trust with consumers.
Industry frameworks, and most notably EDAA’s Advanced Advertising Transparency Programme, leveraging the well-recognised AdChoices Icon and technical solution by means of the IAB’s DSA Transparency Extension, were recognised as crucial tools for promoting consistency across platforms and markets.
A recurring theme coming from all panelists was clear: DSA compliance only works when everyone follows the same standards. Harmonised rules require harmonised standards driven by harmonised enforcement – and there is still work to be done by all actors.
Moderator for this panel, Johannes Schäufele, discusses during our interview how European regulators are setting up to enforce the transparency requirements of the DSA.
Elena Turtureanu from Adform explains at our exclusive interview how the DSA distributes responsibilities across stakeholders in the advertising ecosystem, with the potential for more clarity within the adtech sector.
Another penalist, Lucio Gagliardi, from IAB Europe highlights the importance in his interview about cross-industry cooperation to meet regulatory challenges and the value of standardised solutions such as the AdChoices Icon, which empowers users to access transparency information.
Balancing Regulation and Innovation: Europe’s Competitiveness Under the Spotlight
The next major session, “Unlocking EU’s Economic Potential”, tackled one of today’s most urgent policy questions: How can Europe remain competitive in such a heavily regulated digital environment?
Moderated by researcher Cristiana Firullo, the discussion brought together experts from the European Commission (DG JUST), CCIA Europe, and Criteo. Together, they explored the “speed gap” between innovation and legislation, pointing out that regulations may lead to unintended consequences, making it tougher for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to innovate and thrive. The development of technology-neutral, innovation-friendly legislation will be a key challenge for the future of European businesses, and its success relies, to a significant extent, on effective enforcement and implementation guidance.
A key takeaway emerged: while clear rules are not always a guarantee of compliance, companies have demonstrated their ability to thrive in highly regulated environments when offered fair and predictable regulatory requirements coupled with reliable enforcement structures.. Europe now has an opportunity, through the Commission’s simplification agenda, to review the digital rulebook and leverage a balanced and well-informed framework.
As one of the panelists referred back to in the Draghi report:
“The problem is not that Europe lacks ideas or ambition (…) but that innovation is blocked at the next stage: we are failing to translate innovation into commercialisation.”
The moderator of this session, Cristiana Firullo from Cornell University, recognises in EDAA’s Summit interview the importance of privacy research and responsible data-sharing.
Alongside, Claudia Canelles Quaroni from CCIA Europe discusses during this exclusive interview how principle-based regulation can evolve alongside technological advancements to strengthen European competitiveness.
Another penalist, Nathalie Laneret from Criteo discusses about ethical use of data and the importance of establishing high self-regulatory standards across in this interview.
Launchpad Lessons: The Power of Personalised Advertising for SMEs
Across a dynamic set of to-the-point, hard-hitting lightning talks, three speakers from across France and Belgium showcased how personalised advertising is a vital lever in the engine of early-stage growth.
Their experiences confirmed what data has long shown: appropriate use of responsibly targeted advertising in online environments is a lifeline for Europe’s core of small businesses, helping them reach audiences efficiently and affordably in the face of big-budget incumbents, even within Europe’s rigorous regulatory framework.
The follow-up session with Amazon Ads highlighted the role of AI in accelerating innovation for SMEs, from creative automation to smarter targeting systems. Aaron Shuster, Global Head of Strategy and Business Development, demoed some of the latest tools from Amazon’s cutting-edge AI initiatives designed to simplify the advertising process.
AI, Transparency & Global Consistency: Challenging Questions, Global Implications
As the afternoon progressed, attention turned to AI labelling, ad safety, and the evolving expectations around AI transparency.
A fireside chat with Konrad Shek from the UK Advertising Association and Ludovic Basset of EASA offered a candid look at whether “AI labels” applied to digital advertising are viable, meaningful, or scalable, as well as their potential future role in user-facing scenarios.
Ludovic Basset also further emphasises in our interview the agility of self-regulation and its role in strengthening consumer trust across the advertising ecosystem.
The debate was well informed by an introduction focusing on the recent ICAS Think Tank research, available here.
One standout takeaway from this enthralling discussion: global consistency matters, but local nuance is essential.
The Value Exchange: Privacy, Personalisation & the Future of the Free Internet
The final thematic deep dive of the day, expertly moderated by Mathilde Fiquet (EPC), brought together Google, AWO, and DPG Media for a candid discussion about the interplay between consumer privacy and personalisation, advertising effectiveness, and the sustainability of the free and open internet.
Speakers explored the idea that transparency and user control must be meaningfully implemented for end-users. They also debated whether Europe can truly maintain a competitive, diverse media sector without the economic foundations provided by responsible personalised advertising. There were some heated exchanges regarding the role of contextual advertising, often seen as a less intrusive option. However, it became clear that personalized advertising delivers a much greater impact and return on investment for many small and medium-sized enterprises, and should remain a crucial part of any marketer’s toolkit.
Panel moderator, Mathilde Fiquet of EPC, shares more here in our interview. In another interview, one of the panelists, Nick Botton from AWO further highlights the significance of a fair value exchange within the digital economy.
On the other hand, Bert Verschelde from DPG Media shares with us in our exclusive interview about how advertisers can deliver more relevant digital experiences without intruding on user trust to give user more relevant adverts.
The conversation reaffirmed a shared understanding: A fair digital future requires a fair value exchange – one where consumers understand their rights and choices, and businesses earn trust through clarity, accountability, and respect.
Europe and Beyond: The Global SR Imperative
The entire flow of the 2025 EDAA Summit fed seamlessly into the final session of the day: “What’s Next on the Global Stage?” featuring leaders from DAA and EDAA. This was an absolute highlight of the previous year’s event following our post-event satisfaction survey and, as the Summit drew to a close once more, Ionel Năftănăilă (EDAA) and Lou Mastria (DAA) made sure to deliver the fireworks!
They reminded attendees that despite the complexities ahead, the industry is better positioned than ever to respond collectively and responsibly.
The discussion highlighted growing global alignment around transparency tools, notably the AdChoices Icon, even as regional realities differ.
In reaffirming the critical role of global alignment, Lou Mastria of the DAA provides insight into how self-regulatory programmes contribute to building brand trust and fostering sustained resilience in our interview.
With the event drawing to a close, our excellent host for the day, Nikolas Moschakis (who modestly likened his effort to that of renowned US talkshow host, Jimmy Fallon), drew together his view of the key takeaways with stunning impact and brevity:
Key Themes Emerging from the 2025 Summit
- Harmonisation is essential — rules must be applied consistently across markets to build trust and predictability.
- Responsible targeted advertising remains vital for media sustainability, SME growth, and user relevance.
- Self-regulation and co-regulation deliver practical and immeasurable value, bridging the gap between legislation and real-world implementation.
- AI must enhance transparency, not obscure it, with clear guardrails that support and empower users whilst maintaining business flexibility.
- Collaboration across the value chain is no longer optional, it is now a compliance imperative and the very foundation of a thriving European digital economy.
The 2025 EDAA Summit leaves us with one overarching message: Europe’s digital future depends on trust and trust depends on responsible, meaningful, and shared commitments from everyone in the ecosystem.
A heartfelt thank you to all speakers, to our sponsors this year, Amazon and Google, and to all our participants for making this year’s Summit another milestone event.
We look forward to welcoming you back in 2026!
For more insights from the 2025 Summit, visit https://edaasummit.eu/.
