The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) claims that the company had posted misleading ads on its platforms, Facebook and Instagram, featuring Australian celebrities such as Dick Smith, David Koch and Mike Baird.
Meta has been slammed with a lawsuit by the Australian consumer watchdog, after a number of fake adds were allegedly published on its popular social media platforms.
The adds, which alluded to cryptocurrency and other types of financial investments, included photos of a number of well-known Aussies, like entrepreneur Dick Smith, channel Seven’s ‘Sunrise’ host David Koch and former NSW Premier Mike Baird.
ACCC chairperson Rod Sims pointed out that Facebook made a rather large amount of money through the use of these deceptive advertisements: “The essence of our case is that Meta is responsible for these ads that it publishes on its platform. It is a key part of Meta’s business to enable advertisers to target users who are most likely to click on the link in an ad to visit the ad’s landing page, using Facebook algorithms. Those visits to landing pages from ads generate substantial revenue for Facebook.”
Meanwhile, Dick Smith expressed his relief about the fact that the company was held accountable for its actions, stating: “I’m very disappointed about the number of Australians who lost money in these scams.”
ACCC fines are known to be very heavy for those who are caught making violations, as only a few months ago (December 2021) the Australian Institute of Professional Education was called to pay a record amount of $153 million when it was found guilty of engaging in misleading and unconscionable conduct, while back in June 2020 Sony was forced to pay $3.5 million for making “false and misleading representations” on the PlayStation network in regards to the rights of the consumers.