Martin Lewis settles lawsuit against Facebook

Social media giant Facebook will launch a dedicated new tool to report scam ads, donate £3m to a new Citizens Advice project to help tackle them and cover MSE founder Martin Lewis’ legal costs, after reaching a settlement with him over his campaigning defamation lawsuit.

In April last year, Martin issued High Court proceedings for defamation against Facebook after a year in which over 1,000 scam adverts abusing his name or image had appeared on the site. He pledged any proceeds would go to charity.

Online scam adverts, which often use fake celebrity endorsements to get people to part with their cash, have become widespread across the internet in recent years, and Facebook admitted in May last year admitted that there were 1,000s of these ads featuring Martin on its site.

Now, instead of pursuing legal action, Martin has agreed to drop his lawsuit, and he and Facebook have instead come together in a legal settlement conditional on it agreeing to announce a major two-pronged action plan to fight against the problem:

1. Facebook will donate £3m to Citizens Advice to deliver a new UK Scams Action project (CASA) that will launch in May 2019.
2. Facebook will launch within a few months a new scam ads reporting tool, unique to the UK, and a dedicated team to handle these complaints.

Speaking about the settlement, Martin said: “It shouldn’t have taken the threat of legal action to get here. Yet once we started talking, Facebook quickly realised the scale of the problem, its impact on real people, and agreed to commit to making a difference both on its own platform and across the wider sector.

“The amount being donated to set up the Citizens Advice scams action project is far above anything I could’ve won had I succeeded in a court. In fact, we believe the amount Facebook is donating is substantially bigger than the biggest-ever UK court settlement for defamation. That shows Facebook’s determination to change things.

“The aim of my campaigning lawsuit was always to stop scam ads, and to help those who have fallen victim to them. What we’re announcing today does that at a far bigger scale than I could’ve hoped for.”

“And especially after recent weeks, when another plague of this horrible adverts has been right across the internet. I’d call on the other major players, both social media and advertising platforms, including Google, to follow Facebook’s lead, accept things must change and put their hands in their pockets to help Citizens Advice scams action too.”

Why was Martin taking legal action against Facebook?

In April 2018, acting in a personal capacity, Martin launched a campaigning defamation lawsuit against Facebook, initially seeking exemplary damages to spur change to prevent these ads. He pledged any and all money paid out to him would be donated to anti-scam charities.

Fake Martin Lewis adverts often appeared on Facebook and other sites, and are regularly seen, likely by millions of people in the UK. These adverts are often for scams. Many have big pictures of Martin and his name, alongside a raft of false promises or endorsements – some then link on to fake articles which continue the theme.

For more background on the problem and why Martin launched the lawsuit, see his Martin Lewis to sue Facebook blog and our Fake Martin Lewis ads guide.

What will the Citizens Advice scams action project do?

The Citizens Advice scams action project (CASA) will allow the charity to independently take on scam prevention work, including identifying and tackling online scams that impact people in the UK, and supporting victims.  (Important: This will not launch until May 2019, so please do not contact Citizens Advice about it yet).

It will aim to:

• Increase UK public education and awareness about digital scam ads and how to recognise them.
• Provide one-to-one tailored support to victims of online scams and help people recognise such scams.
• Work on the development of online tools to help consumers, including victims, spot online scams.

The project will launch in May 2019. Facebook will fund it through a £2.5m donation in cash over the next two years and £500,000-worth of Facebook ads, issued in tranches over the next three years.

Citizens Advice will run the project independently on a day-to-day basis, although Facebook will work with it to develop the technology.

What will Facebook’s new scam ad reporting tool do?

As part of the settlement, Facebook will also develop a new tool for UK Facebook users to easily and quickly flag ads that they believe to be scams violating Facebook’s advertising rules or other policies.

Facebook says this will help it keep pace with new scams and gather feedback from users to understand the issue.

It will also create a dedicated team to handle these reports, investigate trends and enforce against offending ads. The team will be trained to deal with the issue.

What does Facebook say?

Steve Hatch, Facebook’s regional director for northern Europe, said: “We’re grateful to Martin Lewis for bringing attention to this important issue and for his guidance over the last eight months.

“Our donation to Citizens Advice and our launch of a new UK scam ad reporting tool and dedicated operations team for this reporting channel is part of a wider commitment to tackling scams and to ensuring people are given more transparency and control over the ads they see on Facebook.

“We look forward to working with Citizens Advice, Martin Lewis and his team, and with others in the industry to continue to explore solutions to this ever-evolving challenge.”

What does Seddons say?

Rory Lynch, solicitor at Seddons, which represented Martin in his action, said: “This ground-breaking defamation suit was pioneered by Mark Lewis [Martin’s lawyer] and Seddons and reflects Martin’s passion for protecting the public from scam adverts.

“Martin took on significant risk in order to make Facebook confront this pernicious practice. This action led to an innovative agreement that sets an important precedent for other industry players to follow.”

Story via www.moneysavingexpert.com