Recently, the advertising regulator in the United Kingdom, the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA), has started clamping down on those that advertise cryptocurrencies, stating the guidelines they must follow.
The regulator recently upheld a complaint against Eve and Jessica Gale, two Instagram influencers and former Love Island reality stars.
According to the complaint, both parties published content that attempted to trivialize “investing in cryptocurrencies.”
According to the Advertising Standards Authority, both parties posted about cryptocurrencies on Instagram without following the necessary guidelines or declaring the associated risks.
Authorities believe the advertisement was “misleading” and “irresponsible.”
ASA stated that they believed the misleading post would be harmful to the public.
“We therefore felt that the ads were aimed at a general audience that would likely lack specialist knowledge of cryptoasset investing. In the absence of other information to the contrary, we felt that consumers would interpret the general impression of the advertisements to mean that investing in cryptoassets was simple and risk-free, even for those consumers who had only limited knowledge of cryptoassets. ”
According to the ASA, the ads did not state the risks associated with cryptocurrencies and thus were not created “with a sense of responsibility.”
They also failed to inform their viewers about the need to pay Capital Gains Tax on their profits.
The advertising regulator revealed in the post that both former reality stars violated the UK code by making such a post on their Instagram stories.
ASA went on to state,
“Because we considered that the ad trivialized investing in cryptoassets by implying that investment was simple and straightforward for all, especially in the context of the intended audience who were likely to have limited knowledge of cryptoassets, we concluded the ads were irresponsible and breached the Code.”
The ASA upheld the complaint and warned the parties involved not to make similar posts in the future.
“We told elizabeth.od, Jessica Gale and Eve Gale to ensure that they did not trivialize the investment in cryptoassets by implying that it was straightforward or accessible to everyone and to not take advantage of consumer’s inexperience or credulity by not making clear CGT could be due on cryptoasset profits. We also told them to ensure that their future ads made sufficiently clear that the value of investments in cryptoassets were variable and could go down as well as up and that cryptoasset was unregulated.”
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