This political ad transparency notice candidate guide is for anyone running for office — from local council to European Parliament — who needs to comply with EU Regulation 2024/900 without spending hours on paperwork. If you can fill out an online form, you can create a legally compliant transparency notice in under 10 minutes.
Who This Guide Is For
You are a candidate. Maybe you are running for a municipal council seat for the first time, or maybe you are an experienced campaigner launching a new election cycle. Either way, the Political Advertising Regulation (PAR) now requires you to create a transparency notice for every political advertisement you sponsor — and that includes everything from Facebook ads to printed flyers.
This guide walks you through the entire process using a real scenario.
The Scenario: Your First Campaign Flyer
Let us say you are Maria, running for city council in a mid-sized European city. Your campaign team has designed a flyer that will be printed and distributed to 5,000 households in your district. Under the PAR, this flyer is political advertising and requires a transparency notice.
Here is exactly what happens, step by step.
Step 1: Create Your Account (2 Minutes)
Go to the Taurus platform and register. You will need your name, email, and basic contact information. If you are running as part of a party, you can link your account to your party's organisation later — but you do not need to wait for that.
Step 2: Start a New Notice (1 Minute)
From your dashboard, click "New Notice." The system generates a unique 17-digit public ID for your notice. This ID will appear on your flyer as part of the QR code, and citizens can use it to look up your transparency information.
Step 3: Enter Sponsor Details (2 Minutes)
The wizard asks who is sponsoring this ad. In Maria's case, the sponsor is Maria herself — her full legal name, address, and contact email. If her party were paying for the flyer, the party would be listed as sponsor instead.
This is also where you declare the sponsor type (natural person, party, or legal entity) and any relevant registration numbers. If you have filled this in before, Taurus remembers your details and pre-populates the fields.
Step 4: Add Financial Information (2 Minutes)
Next, the wizard asks about payment. How much does the flyer cost? Who is paying? Maria's print run costs EUR 450, paid from her personal campaign funds. She enters the amount and confirms she is both sponsor and payer.
If someone else were funding the flyer — a supporter, a party, a third-party organisation — that entity would need to be identified as the payer, with their own name and contact details.
Step 5: Describe the Ad and Its Distribution (2 Minutes)
The wizard asks for a brief description of the advertisement, the publication period, the territory of distribution, and the language. Maria enters:
- Description: Campaign flyer for city council election, District 7
- Publication period: 15 March 2026 to 29 March 2026
- Territory: Germany
- Language: German
- Distribution method: Physical distribution to households
For a print flyer, there are no targeting criteria to declare — the flyer goes to every household in the district. For digital ads, this step would include the targeting parameters used on the platform.
Step 6: Review and Publish (1 Minute)
The wizard shows a summary of every field. Maria reviews the information and clicks "Publish." The notice is now live and publicly accessible. Anyone who scans the QR code on her flyer will see the full transparency notice — who sponsored it, how much it cost, and when and where it was distributed.
What You Get After Publishing
Once published, your transparency notice is:
- Publicly accessible at a permanent URL, linked to your unique 17-digit ID
- QR-code ready — download the QR code and include it on your printed material
- Archived — the notice is retained for the full 5-year period required by Art. 12 PAR
- Editable — if details change (for example, the distribution period is extended), you can update the notice and the revision history is preserved
Common Questions From First-Time Candidates
Do I need a notice for social media posts?
Only if the post is a paid advertisement. An organic post on your personal account is generally not covered. A boosted or sponsored post is covered.
What if my party handles everything?
Your party can create notices on your behalf if they are the sponsor. But if you are individually sponsoring ads — even small ones — the obligation is on you. Many parties use Taurus's organisation features to manage notices centrally while keeping individual candidates informed.
What about posters and banners?
Yes, campaign posters and banners are political advertising under Art. 2(2) PAR. Each distinct advertisement needs its own notice. However, if you print the same poster in multiple sizes, a single notice can cover all versions.
Is there a minimum spend threshold?
No. The regulation does not set a de minimis threshold. A EUR 50 flyer run requires the same transparency notice as a EUR 50,000 television campaign.
Take the First Step Now
Compliance does not have to be a burden. The entire process described above takes less than 10 minutes, and most of that time is spent the first time you set up your sponsor details. Subsequent notices reuse your information and can be completed even faster.
Get started on your first transparency notice now — it is free, it is fast, and it keeps you on the right side of the regulation from day one.