The Legal Obligation
Article 12 of EU Regulation 2024/900 (the Political Advertising Regulation) requires every published transparency notice to remain publicly accessible for at least five years after the last publication date of the associated advertisement. This is not optional -- it is a binding legal obligation that applies to every political ad published in the EU.
If your advertisement runs until 15 October 2026, the transparency notice must remain accessible until at least 15 October 2031. During that entire period, anyone who scans the QR code, follows the link, or looks up your notice by its public ID must be able to view the complete disclosure.
Why Five Years?
The five-year retention period is designed to span a full electoral cycle. European Parliament elections occur every five years, and most national election cycles fall within a similar range. The transparency record from one election must remain available through the next.
This serves three key purposes:
Democratic accountability. Citizens, journalists, and researchers can look back at who paid for which political messages long after the campaign ends. Tracing political advertising spending over time is one of the regulation's core goals.
Regulatory oversight. National authorities may not investigate a potential violation immediately. Complaints can surface months or even years after an ad runs. The retention period ensures the evidence remains available when regulators need it.
Historical record. Over time, the archive of transparency notices creates a comprehensive record of political advertising across the EU. This is valuable for academic research, policy analysis, and informed public discourse.
What "Archived" Means
When your advertisement stops running, your transparency notice enters an archived state. This means:
- The advertisement is no longer active or being distributed
- The notice remains fully visible and accessible on ttad.eu
- All disclosed information -- sponsor, payer, costs, targeting, distribution -- stays public
- The revision history is preserved in full
- The QR code continues to resolve to the notice page
Archiving is not removal. It is a status change that indicates the ad campaign has concluded while the legal transparency obligation continues. Visitors who scan an old QR code will still see the complete notice, with a clear indication that the associated advertisement is no longer running.
This Is Different From Deletion
Once a transparency notice is published, it cannot be deleted. This is a direct consequence of the legal retention requirement. Even if you made a mistake in the notice, the solution is to publish a correction (which is captured in the revision history), not to remove the notice entirely.
This may feel unfamiliar if you are used to platforms where you can delete content at will. But the regulation is explicit: the transparency record must persist. Removing a notice before the five-year period expires is itself a violation of the regulation, separate from any other compliance issue.
The rationale is straightforward. If advertisers could delete their transparency notices after an election, the entire system would be undermined. The public would have no way to verify who funded the political messages they saw, and regulators would have no evidence to review.
What The Taurus Handles Automatically
When you publish a transparency notice on The Taurus, the five-year retention obligation is managed for you:
- Permanent hosting. Your notice is hosted on infrastructure designed for long-term availability. The URL does not change, the page does not go down, and the content is not removed.
- Automatic retention tracking. The Taurus calculates the retention deadline based on the publication period you specified in the notice. You do not need to set reminders or track deadlines manually.
- Revision history. Every change to the notice is recorded with timestamps. Both original and updated values are preserved, creating a complete audit trail.
- Continued accessibility. Archived notices remain fully functional on ttad.eu. The QR code printed on your poster in 2026 will still work in 2031.
This applies to every plan, including the free tier. Whether you are an individual creating a single notice or an organization managing dozens of campaigns, retention is built in.
A Permanent Public Record
The five-year retention requirement has a broader significance beyond individual compliance. Collectively, the retained notices form a permanent public record of political advertising in the EU. Over time, this archive will document patterns of political spending, reveal the funding sources behind campaigns, and provide transparency into how political messages are targeted and distributed across member states.
This is a fundamental shift. Before the regulation, information about political advertising was scattered, incomplete, and often unavailable. The retention requirement ensures that this information is not only collected but preserved -- creating an enduring resource for democratic accountability.
What You Should Keep in Mind
- You cannot delete a published notice. If you need to correct information, update the notice. The revision history will show both the original and corrected values.
- The retention period starts when your ad stops running. Not when the notice is published, but when the last publication date of the advertisement passes.
- Supporting documents have a separate requirement. Beyond the public notice, you should retain contracts, invoices, and targeting exports for at least seven years according to documentation requirements. These are your responsibility to store.
- Plan for organizational change. If your campaign entity may dissolve after an election, ensure the transparency records are accessible to a continuing entity or designated successor.