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The European Commission faces pressure from several member states, putting the burden on social media platforms to combat online payment fraud that scam people from billions of euros each year.
The Ireland-led initiative is as US President Donald Trump pushes Brussels to reduce regulations on large American high-tech companies.
Brussels hopes to introduce automatic refund rights from PayPal, Visa, MasterCard and banks for clients scammers, based on the Commission’s proposal on the regulation of payment services negotiated between EU countries.
However, the proposed amendments to that proposal, submitted by the Irish Ministry of Finance and gained traction among other EU countries, mandates Big Technology to check the legitimacy of the advertisers before placing an ad.
According to the latest EU figures, online scammers use sophisticated ads that encourage users to enter personal data, and use sophisticated ads that encourage users to enter personal data.
Only advertising by registered financial services providers is permitted in the EU under AIRISH Proposal. This was seen in the Financial Times. That would require changes to regulations currently under negotiation.
Ireland’s European Parliament Regina Doherty said:
Google refused to discuss the talk, but said it fought “financial fraud in advertising through tools, people and policies.”
Google has a Financial Services Certification program that helps you fight fraud, operating in 17 countries. Financial Services advertisers must demonstrate that their ads are approved by national financial services regulators in countries where they appear to post to Google.
Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, declined to comment.
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Ireland says that “they focus is not on the content itself, but on the actors who place the content.” This is to ensure that the platform is an approved financial service provider before the entity becomes an advertiser,” according to a memo from the Treasury, which announced in February.
About half of EU countries have expressed support, according to people close to the proposal. However, Ireland’s plans have reached a hindrance.
The committee argues that, according to some EU diplomats, it violates the provisions of the Landmark Digital Services Act, which states that high-tech groups do not need to carry out broad surveillance of content, to require online advertisers to promote fraud.
However, promoters of the Irish-led initiative have rebutted that requirements for veterinary advertisers can be designed to comply with existing laws.
“We can’t do that, not (on the committee’s part), that’s why we’re mad,” Irish MEP Doherty told Fort. She said relying on voluntary regulations by social media platforms is not enough.
The committee said it could not comment on “issues relating to ongoing negotiations regarding legislative proposals.”
Poland, which holds a rotating EU presidency and is in charge of securing legislative consensus, remains unconvinced.
Instead, Warsaw proposes simplifying communication between payment providers and platforms, and according to draft suggestions, it would need to “remove or block access to content related to the cause of reported fraud.”
The industry says it’s too late and lawmakers don’t fully grasp the gap between the nature of investment fraud and the legislative process.
The country’s largest bank and champion of Ireland’s proposals, more than 75% of client losses last year came from investment scams, according to the Bank of Ireland.
Advertising online scams can often be removed at any time after the damage has occurred, before it reaches the eyes of the authorities. In many cases, victims cannot recover the money, but advertisers will post similar ads again in a different format.
“Reporting fraud through social media platforms led to an event,” said Brian Hayes, CEO of Banking and Payments Federation Ireland.
“The EU Commission is trying to encourage its clients to invest in financial markets. But when this happens to consumers in real life, they are hurting for life and probably don’t want to invest.”
