By Suzanne Vranica

The Federal Trade Commission and a coalition of eight states have reached a proposed settlement with major advertising companies to resolve a probe into whether the firms violated antitrust laws by coordinating boycotts against platforms, including Elon Musk's X.

The FTC began its inquiry last year, seeking information from the world's largest ad companies, including Publicis Groupe, WPP and Dentsu. The government's probe focused on whether the companies, along with various groups that help brands keep their ads away from controversial content, acted anticompetitively by coordinating to stop spending advertising money on specific online platforms.

The Wall Street Journal reported earlier this month that the FTC and ad firms were in settlement talks.

The FTC alleged in a complaint filed Wednesday in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas that the ad giants worked with third-party groups to establish ways to keep their ads away from misinformation or objectionable content. The FTC's complaint said those entities, such as NewsGuard and the Global Disinformation Index, weaponized such designations to systematically demonetize disfavored political viewpoints -- particularly conservative news and commentary sites.

Brand-safety agreements "distorted the marketplace of ideas by discriminating against speech and ideas," said FTC Chairman Andrew N. Ferguson.

Also Wednesday, the parties filed a request for the judge to review the proposed settlement. Dentsu, Publicis Groupe and WPP, have agreed to a proposed consent order that, if approved by the judge, would restrict ad placements based on biased and politically motivated criteria, the FTC said.

WPP said it had reached an agreement without admitting or denying wrongdoing. The company said the deal "reflects our existing and ongoing commitment to provide our clients with unbiased advice as they decide where to place their media."

Dentsu said: "Our dedication to delivering value and maintaining the highest standards of compliance is unchanged."

Publicis didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.

Over the past decade, "brand safety" -- the practice of ensuring ads don't appear next to inappropriate or controversial material -- has become a significant focus of the ad industry. So have questions about what makes for inappropriate content, or how damaging proximity to that material actually is for brands.

"Fully informed transactions between buyers and sellers are a key tenet of a free market," said a spokesperson for the Global Disinformation Index. "Advertisers and their agents have a free-speech right to choose where they want to place their advertisements."

"We don't work with the ad agencies signing the consent order, and our ratings are based on nonpartisan journalistic standards, not political orientation," said NewsGuard co-founder Gordon Crovitz. "We don't believe the FTC should be the arbiter of political bias or seek to censor our work."

The proposed settlement comes almost a year after the FTC reached a similar agreement with Omnicom Group as part of its $13.5 billion acquisition of rival Interpublic Group. That agreement barred the ad companies from coordinating with others to direct advertising away from media publishers based on the publishers' political or ideological viewpoints. Individual advertisers can still choose to avoid specific sites for their ads.

Shortly after Musk acquired Twitter in late 2022, many major advertisers paused their ads on the site, partly because of content-moderation concerns. In 2024, X sued an ad trade group and several big companies, including CVS Health, Colgate-Palmolive, and Mars, claiming the group illegally boycotted the platform and violated antitrust laws.

A federal court dismissed the lawsuit last month.

Write to Suzanne Vranica at Suzanne.Vranica@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

April 15, 2026 11:29 ET (15:29 GMT)

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