The news: The European Consumer Organization (BEUC) and members across 27 countries have filed Digital Services Act (DSA) complaints with the European Commission against Meta, TikTok, and Google, accusing them of failing to remove fraudulent ads, per Reuters.

BEUC reported nearly 900 ads suspected of breaching EU laws between December 2025 and March 2026, but only 27% of the ads were taken down. Apple and Microsoft are also under EU scrutiny for fraud response.

“Meta, TikTok, and Google not only fail to proactively remove fraudulent ads but also do little when being notified about such scams,” Agustin Reyna, BEUC director general, said in a ​statement.

All three platforms responded to the complaint.

• “We strictly enforce our ad policies, blocking over 99% of violating ads before they ever run,” a Google spokesperson told Reuters.
• Meta said, “Last year we found and removed over 159 million scam ads, 92% before anyone reported them to us."
• TikTok, which noted that scams are an industry-wide challenge, said it has been taking action against violations.

Why it’s worth watching: The sheer scale of programmatic advertising, with billions of ads served daily across Google, Meta, and TikTok, makes comprehensive human review impossible.

Automated detection systems are routinely outpaced by bad actors who rotate creative, spoof landing pages, and exploit new ad formats. There’s also a lack of incentive to act on scam ads. 

• Meta’s internal documents show it knowingly earned up to 10% of its annual revenues in 2024—around $16 billion—from scam and banned product ads.
• TikTok, still building its ad business in Europe, has less revenue at stake but equally little structural motivation to prioritize enforcement over growth.

Fines for DSA violations can be up to 6% of global annual turnover. Until regulators impose costs that exceed the revenues platforms derive from bad actors, the math may not add up in favor of faster removal.

Implications for brands: For brands running paid media on these platforms, the DSA complaints are worth taking seriously. Brand safety has long been framed as a concern about appearing next to offensive content—but proximity to financial scam ads carries its own reputational exposure.

A legitimate brand’s ad appearing alongside a crypto scam or fake investment scheme doesn’t just risk guilt by association; it implicitly endorses the platform’s curation algorithms. 

CMOs and media buyers should press platform partners for stronger ad verification commitments and audit placements for brand safety adjacency.

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