U.K. Advertising Standards Authority has upheld its decision against Arsenal football club over its fan token advertisement for not mentioning the risks in such investments.
The advertising regulators had earlier decided that two adverts on the club's Facebook page on August 6 and the club's Facebook page on August 12, 2021 were misleading and irresponsible, and did not provide sufficient information that the digital asset was a criptocurrency.
On December 21, 2021, ASA ruled that Arsenal should take down the adverts.
However, the London-based football club appealed the decision of the ASA, arguing that the post on its website about the AFC fan token was merely educational and included a warning about the risk of volatility and a recommendation that fans should seek financial advice before buying.
The club added that the Facebook post came a week after that on its website, which was enough time for fans to know about the first post, and it highlighted the use of fan token for voting on some club decisions.
According to Arsenal, the ad did not promote the fan token as an investment that would bring capital gain and did not encourage the trading of cryptocurrencies.
ASA insists that the ads were a violation of the law.
ASA appeared to disagree with the club over the ads, despite Arsenal attempting to convince the regulator about its fan token advertisement.
The ads were promoting cryptocurrencies to the general public. It should contain warnings about the risks of investing in such investments.
The warning was placed at the bottom of the ad, meaning some users might not see it, and added that the warning did not make consumers aware that paid-for Fan tokens were unregulated in the U.K. The regulators ruled that the ads must not appear in the previous form, despite the three objections raised by Arsenal.
It advised the club to provide sufficient information about the Fan token as investment and crypto assets, and not trivialize it.
Authorities in the United Kingdom are working on clamping down on the circulation of misleading cripto-advertised ads in the United Kingdom.
Singapore and Australia have taken tough measures towards ads for cryptocurrencies.