EU Consumer Group Says Tech Giants Failed to Block Scam Ads

The European Consumer Organisation (BEUC), a consumer group in the European Union, said in a Thursday (May 21) press release that Google, Meta and TikTok did not protect consumers from scams.

The organization filed complaints with the European Commission and other authorities about the three tech giants for allegedly failing to prevent the spread of scam ads on their platforms, as required by the EU’s Digital Services Act, the release said.

“Under the Digital Services Act, Meta, TikTok and Google are required to have effective mechanisms in place to fight fraudulent ads and reduce the risks to consumers,” BEUC Director General Agustín Reyna said in the release. “Unfortunately, our research shows alarming discrepancies between what these platforms claim to do and the reality of what is happening. In fact, Meta, TikTok and Google not only fail to proactively remove fraudulent ads, but also do little when being notified about such scams.”

The BEUC and consumer groups from 13 countries reported almost 900 ads suspected of violating EU law between December and March, according to the release. Of these, the platforms removed 27% based on the notices, while 52% of the reports were either ignored or dismissed.

“That means hundreds of financial scams are still active, reaching more than 200 million European consumers every month and risking further financial losses and other harms,” the release said.

Reached for comment by PYMNTS, TikTok said it takes reported scam ads seriously, takes action against ads where it finds violations, and has worked with global authorities like Interpol and the United Nations on scam prevention.

The company cited its most recent quarterly Community Guidelines Enforcement Report, which said 97.7% of fraud and scam content was taken down before it was reported to TikTok.

“This complaint misrepresents how we fight scams and is inherently flawed,” a Google spokesperson told PYMNTS. “We take extensive measures to keep scams off our platforms, blocking over 99% of policy-violating ads before they are ever seen.”

Google also said the BEUC complaint was based on “flawed” research that examined just a small number of Google ads, and that the company last year blocked or removed more than 1.4 billion policy-violating ads in the European Union.

Meta has not replied to PYMNTS’ request for comment.

A BEUC report on the issue this month said a survey conducted by consumer groups last year found that 22% of adults and 18% of teens had been victims of fraud or security breaches in the last five years.

Meanwhile, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission released data last month showing that almost 30% of people who reported losing money in a scam last year said that the scam began on social media.

Reported losses came to $2.1 billion, with social media scams leading to more in losses, an eight-fold increase since 2020, than any other method scammers used to get in touch with customers.

The FTC’s findings are in line with PYMNTS Intelligence research, which showed that digital communication channels are some of the most common ways that online financial scammers make their first connections with their victims.