Wire & File: Publicis Bought LiveRamp's Neutrality. Apple Called It Tracking. The Trade Desk Charged the Toll.
Publicis won FTC clearance for its $2.2 billion LiveRamp purchase on a promise to keep it neutral, and says the conditions were its own idea. The same day, Apple published its case that identity resolution, close to what LiveRamp sells, is tracking it can block in Safari.
Read the full investigation on ADOTAT →Key findings
- The FTC order requires five years of nondiscriminatory access and an independent audit every six months.
- One 15-person agency cleared The Trade Desk's $100,000 monthly bar and still pays 17% to TTD plus 12% to reseller Mogl.
- Netflix cut its 2026 ad revenue forecast from about $3 billion to about $2.7 billion, then launched the Netflix Pixel.
- Meta booked $63.1 billion in Q3 ad revenue the same day a judge ordered it to pay New Mexico $25 billion.
- Strip out $224 million of World Cup revenue and Comcast domestic advertising was flat at $1.6 billion.
The full story, with the documents, the numbers and the responses, is on new.adotat.com. Get ADOTAT in your inbox: subscribe free.