UK Advertising Watchdog to Crack Down on ‘Misleading’ Crypto Ads

UK’s advertise monitoring authority, Advertising Standards Authority (ASA), is launching a crackdown operation against crypto adverts that are allegedly misleading and encouraging investment in digital assets. A red flag is shown to crypto campaigns as well.

ASA is concerned that the campaigns regarding crypto are not being carried out in accordance with the best practices. In fact, most of the campaigns are misleading and encouraging people to invest in crypto without informing them of the risks. Therefore, most of the crypto-related adverts in the UK have been labeled as “irresponsible” by ASA.

Now ASA has made an announcement in which it has told clearly that it will tighten its monitoring against crypto adverts. The authority said that this time standards will be enforced upon anyone involved in crypto ads. If compliance with the standards is not ensured then strict action will be taken against such persons and entities. As an interim measure, the authority will make sure that such irresponsible adverts are removed immediately at all costs.

ASA’s Director, Miles Lockwood, suggested that the regulator’s role in keeping the marketing process clean is crucial. If any problem is noted by the regulator then the crackdown will be implemented without wasting any time.

The authority has further shown a red flag to cryptocurrency campaigns as well. ASA has said that it will adopt a more strict strategy towards monitoring the adverts relating to digital assets. As per the rules of ASA, crypto campaign ads are not following the conditions set up by ASA. However, there is a lack of mechanism within ASA, as a result of which, most of the adverts go unnoticed. Instead, the authority has had to heavily rely on the complaints coming in from the general public.

Now the authority has promised that it will strengthen its supervisory and monitoring role. Even the authority will now keep an eye on the social media network to see if the rules are followed or not.

The head of ASA, Louise Maroney, said that there are too many grey areas in the social media, which ASA hasn’t stepped a foot in yet. However, the authority is now fully committed to addressing issues prevailing at social media websites as well.

The authority has come into action when it noticed that a crypto company called Luno had posted adverts at Cubes in London. At that time, ASA said that Luno’s adverts were irresponsible as they did not talk about risks associated with the crypto investment. On this basis, the company was called off to remove all crypto adverts immediately. However, no legal action other than the removal of adverts was taken against Luno by the authority. In response, Luno stated that there is a genuine lack of clarity in the rules prescribed by ASA.