Meta told to shut down illegal advertising in Brazil
The Attorney General’s Office of the Union (AGU) has sent an extrajudicial notification to Meta (the parent company of Instagram and Facebook) requesting the removal of illegal advertisements from profiles related to unauthorized online betting and gaming in Brazil. The action was taken by the National Prosecutor’s Office for the Defence of Democracy (PNDD) which is in turn part of the Attorney General’s Office.
The AGU argues in the notification that Brazilian legislation (Law No. 14,970/2023 and Ordinance SPA/MF No. 1,207/2024) requires that fixed-odds betting, such as online gaming and betting, be conducted only with prior authorization issued by the Ministry of Finance.
Therefore, companies that have not obtained authorization from the Ministry of Finance are operating illegally, which also renders the advertising of their services and applications illegal. As a general rule, authorized sites must have the ending “.bet.br”.
“This is, therefore, a manifestly illegal activity (as it concerns profiles not authorized by the Ministry of Finance) — which may also be connected to tax evasion, money laundering, crimes against consumer relations, fraud, and other illegal practices — making their advertising equally unlawful,” states a section of the notification.
According to a press release from the AGU, hundreds of active ads have been identified in Meta’s ad library from profiles that do not comply with Brazilian legislation.
The AGU in its notification also states that in a recent decision regarding the constitutionality of Article 19 of the Internet Civil Framework, the Federal Supreme Court (STF) established that digital platforms are presumed liable for illicit content in cases of paid ads and promotions. In such cases, companies must “prove that they acted diligently and within a reasonable time to make the content unavailable.”
In the notification, the AGU requests the removal of the illegal advertising within 48 hours and that Meta refrains from promoting content that does not comply with the list of companies authorized by the Ministry of Finance and regulatory bodies to engage in online betting and gaming.
The AGU went on to say in the document that, despite recent efforts by the company, which include a promise to update its terms of use for gambling advertising, the verification process still presents practical flaws that need to be addressed.
