Glossary

Key terms and definitions for political advertising transparency.

A

Ad Booking: A record in the publisher workflow linking an advertiser to a specific ad placement. Contains the title, format, section, publication date, and linked transparency notice.
Advertiser: A client of a publisher who commissions political advertisements. In The Taurus, an advertiser record stores identity, contact, payer, controller, and funding information.
Archived: The status of a transparency notice whose associated ad is no longer running. Archived notices remain publicly accessible for the legally required five-year retention period. See also: Revision.
Art. 11 PAR: The article of EU Regulation 2024/900 requiring publishers to verify the existence and plausibility of a transparency notice before publishing a political advertisement. See also: Publisher.
Art. 12 PAR: The article of EU Regulation 2024/900 requiring transparency notices to remain accessible for five years and mandating documentation of any changes through a revision history. See also: Revision.
Art. 15 PAR: The article of EU Regulation 2024/900 requiring sponsors to provide a mechanism for the public to file complaints about transparency notices.
Art. 29 PAR: The article of EU Regulation 2024/900 establishing penalties for non-compliance, including fines of up to 6% of annual turnover or income.
Art. 9 PAR: The article of EU Regulation 2024/900 that specifies what information must be included in a transparency notice for political advertising. It defines the mandatory fields such as sponsor identity, payer, funding origin, and targeting criteria.

C

Campaign: A grouping of transparency notices for aggregate cost tracking. When multiple ads are part of the same political campaign, their total spending must be disclosed. See also: Transparency Notice.
Chapter: A local branch or subdivision of a political party or organization within The Taurus. Chapters store sponsor defaults and can have their own notices and team members.
Compliance Link: A bidirectional connection between a publisher's advertiser record and an organization's chapter. Enables data synchronization, complaint routing, and shared compliance tracking. See also: Publisher, Chapter.
Controller: The data controller as defined under the GDPR, responsible for processing personal data in the context of targeted political advertising. Must be disclosed when targeting criteria involve personal data. See also: Targeting Criteria.

D

Draft: A transparency notice that is still being worked on and has not yet been published. Visible only to the creator and their team. See also: Published.

E

Edit Lock: A mechanism that prevents multiple users from editing the same transparency notice simultaneously. The lock is held by the active editor and released when they finish or after a timeout.

F

Funding Origin: The source of funds used to pay for a political advertisement. Must be disclosed as public or private, and as originating from within or outside the EU. See also: Payer, Sponsor.

I

Implementing Regulation (EU) 2025/1410: The EU implementing regulation that specifies the exact format, structure, and technical requirements for transparency notices under the PAR. It supplements EU Regulation 2024/900 with detailed technical standards.

L

Listed: The status of a transparency notice that was created to track an external notice not originally created in The Taurus. Used for including external notices in campaign cost tracking. See also: Campaign.

M

Methodology: A plain-language description of how targeting and reach work for a political advertisement. Required when personal data is used for targeting. See also: Targeting Criteria.

P

Payer: The entity that pays for a political advertisement, when different from the sponsor. Must be disclosed in the transparency notice. See also: Sponsor, Funding Origin.
Political Advertising Regulation (PAR): EU Regulation 2024/900, establishing transparency requirements for political advertising across the European Union. In force since October 2025. The PAR requires transparency notices for all political ads and imposes verification duties on publishers.
Public ID: A unique identifier assigned to each published transparency notice. Used in the URL (ttad.eu/{publicId}) and the QR code to link directly to the public notice page.
Published: The status of a transparency notice that is live and publicly accessible. Published notices can be edited and republished, creating a new revision. See also: Draft, Revision.
Publisher: A media organization that distributes political advertisements: newspapers, broadcasters, outdoor advertising companies, online news sites, or advertising agencies. Publishers have verification duties under Art. 11 PAR.

Q

QR Code: A machine-readable code generated for each published transparency notice. When scanned, it links to the notice's public page at ttad.eu. Colors can be customized to match the ad's design.

R

Revision: An immutable snapshot of a transparency notice at the time of publication. Each publish or republish creates a new revision, forming an audit trail as required by Art. 12 PAR.

S

Sponsor: The entity that initiated, prepared, funded, or otherwise contributed to a political advertisement. The primary responsible party for the transparency notice. See also: Payer, Sponsor Template.
Sponsor Template: A reusable set of sponsor information (name, address, registration number) that can be applied when creating new transparency notices, reducing repetitive data entry. See also: Sponsor.

T

Targeting Criteria: Information about how personal data was used to select the audience for a political advertisement. Includes techniques, logic, AI usage, consent information, targeted groups, and data categories. See also: Controller, Methodology.
Transparency Notice: A legally required disclosure attached to a political advertisement, containing information about who sponsored, paid for, and targeted the ad, as defined by Art. 9 of EU Regulation 2024/900. See also: Draft, Published, Archived.
Trust Badge: A visual emblem that organizations can embed on their website, indicating they use The Taurus for political advertising compliance. Links to the organization's public compliance profile.
TTAD: Transparency Tool for Advertising Disclosure. The public register where published transparency notices can be viewed at ttad.eu. See also: Public ID, QR Code.
TTPA Check: A compliance audit tool in The Taurus that analyzes external transparency notices published on other platforms for compliance with Art. 9 requirements. See also: Art. 9 PAR, Listed.

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