• Wall Street Journal, Friday, June 3, 2016 6:39 AM

As issues surrounding transparency reach a fever-pitch, an eight-month probe by the Association of National Advertisers (ANA) revealed that ad agencies in the U.S. are accepting rebates from media companies, people familiar with the matter told the Wall Street Journal. The ANA found that media companies are using rebates to reward ad agencies for buying a certain amount of advertising time or space on behalf of their clients, the sources said. The group found that the practice was widespread within the sample it studied. Rebates or agency-volume bonuses—in cash, free ad space or other services—are a common business practice in Europe and countries such as China and Brazil. But, historically, they haven’t been part of the way U.S. advertising deals work. Some ad firms have said publicly that they don’t accept rebates in the U.S. An ANA spokesperson declined to comment, as the release of the probe is "imminent."

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