Czech Republic ad rules in 2026
Czech advertisers work in a market with a strong local search engine. Seznam runs its own search and display network, sold through Sklik, next to Google. The 2026 rule changes are EU-wide: political and issue ads face labelling and targeting limits since 10 October 2025, the Digital Services Act is enforced through national coordinators, and Google requires a certified consent platform for EEA traffic. A Czech plan that covers only Google misses part of search demand, and one that skips consent checks under-reports results.
Executive findings
- 1
Seznam sells search and content-network advertising through Sklik.
Documented: official source. Scope: Czech Republic; Seznam.cz, as of . [1]
- 2
Regulation (EU) 2024/900 on political advertising entered into full application on 10 October 2025.
Documented: official source. Scope: EU member states including the Czech Republic, as of . [2]
- 3
Each member state appoints a Digital Services Coordinator to help the Commission monitor and enforce the Digital Services Act.
Documented: official source. Scope: EU member states, as of . [3]
- 4
Google requires a Google-certified consent management platform for ads served to users in the EEA, the UK and Switzerland.
Documented: official source. Scope: EEA including the Czech Republic, as of . [4]
Method and limitations
- Question
- What changed in advertising rules and platform options in the Czech Republic during 2025 and 2026, and what should an advertiser do about it?
- Written for
- Marketing leads and founders planning paid media in the Czech Republic.
- Decision at stake
- Which compliance steps to complete before launch, and which channels deserve a test budget this year.
- Sources
- Seznam’s Sklik advertising page, European Commission pages on political advertising and Digital Services Coordinators, and Google’s EEA consent requirements.
- Period
- Official and professional sources as published on 18 October 2026.
- Markets
- the Czech Republic, national rules and the platform policies that apply there
- Definitions
- Sklik: Seznam’s self-serve advertising system for search results and its content network.
- Limitations
- This briefing is not legal or tax advice. Confirm obligations with qualified local counsel before acting.
- Rules and platform terms change; each source shows the date we read it.
Two search engines, one budget
Documented: official source
Sklik covers Seznam search results and its content network of Czech sites. Keyword research, negative lists and conversion tracking have to be set up separately from Google Ads, and reporting needs to bring both into one view so the budget can move between them.
EU rules that apply in 2026
Documented: official source
Political ads in the EU now need a label and a transparency notice, and targeting with personal data needs explicit consent. The Digital Services Act adds advertising transparency duties for online platforms, supervised by national coordinators. Consent for cookies and similar identifiers remains a separate requirement, which Google enforces for EEA traffic through its certified consent platform rule.
Opportunities this year
FOCUSADS view
Advertisers who treat Seznam as a second search engine, with its own keywords and bids, often find demand that Google-only plans leave alone. FOCUSADS includes Sklik in Czech plans where the goal and category fit, and reports both search engines against the client’s own outcome data.
How this connects to our method: How market rules enter the plan
References
- Sklik: reklama na Seznamu, Seznam.cz, accessed
- Transparency and targeting of political advertising, European Commission, accessed
- Digital Services Coordinators, European Commission, Shaping Europe’s digital future, accessed
- Google consent management requirements for serving ads in the EEA, the UK, and Switzerland, Google AdSense Help, accessed