Alphabet’s Google, Meta Platforms, and TikTok were hit with a wave of coordinated complaints from European Union consumer protection groups on Thursday. The platforms stand accused of failing to protect users from a surge of predatory financial scams and fraudulent advertisements circulating across their digital networks.
The regulatory offensive underscores mounting global pressure on Big Tech to actively police the negative real-world impacts of social media, particularly concerning vulnerable demographics and minors. Filed by the European Consumer Organisation (BEUC) alongside 29 member groups spanning 27 European nations, the complaints were officially submitted to both the European Commission and national watchdogs, News.Az reports, citing Reuters.
The legal basis for the filing rests on the EU's landmark Digital Services Act (DSA), which legally obligates major online platforms to aggressively tackle illegal, deceptive, and harmful content. "Meta, TikTok and Google not only fail to pro-actively remove fraudulent ads but also do little when being notified about such scams," BEUC Director General Agustín Reyna said in a statement. Reyna warned that if tech firms refuse to harden their systems, digital fraudsters will continue to siphon hundreds of thousands of euros out of the pockets of European consumers daily.
To back their complaints, the consumer groups disclosed that they had flags and tracked nearly 900 highly suspicious advertisements breaching EU laws between December last year and March this year. The platform response was overwhelmingly sluggish: tech giants completely ignored or actively rejected 52% of the flagged fraud reports, taking down just 27% of the confirmed scam ads.
The coalitions are urging EU regulators to launch an immediate investigation into the compliance practices of all three tech firms. Should the European Commission find Google, Meta, or TikTok in systemic breach of the DSA's strict consumer safety mandates, the financial penalties could be catastrophic, with maximum fines scaling up to 6% of a company’s global annual turnover. The tech companies did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
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