Meta allowed over 1,000 illegal financial ads to run in Britain in a single week despite voluntary ban

Britain's Financial Conduct Authority found that during one week in November, Meta allowed 1,052 unauthorized ads for high-risk currency trading and complex financial instruments to run on its platforms, despite a voluntary commitment Meta made in 2022 to only allow FCA-authorized firms to run financial services ads in the UK. More than 56% of those ads came from unauthorized advertisers that the FCA had already flagged to Meta, and a Reuters test confirmed the disparity in enforcement, with a suspicious investment ad running freely in Britain while being blocked in Australia, where Meta faces fines of up to A$50M for failing to detect scams. The legal gap is expected to persist until at least 2027, when provisions of Britain's Online Safety Act giving regulators power to act against paid scam ads are scheduled to come into force.