Russia’s apex financial body, the FAS, announced that it fined the search engine giants for advertising a social trading platform, eToro, to its citizens. Three months ago, the FAS had accused Google of violating several advertising policies related to Russia.
FAS claimed that eToro’s target audience couldn’t be Russians since the exchange does not have any Russian operating license. Fact checks show that eToro’s trading services in Russia stopped four years ago. Also, eToro wasn’t behind the unlawful advert campaign the FAS is accusing it of running.
eToro Ad But Google’s Penalty?
The FAS said it slapped Google with the fine since it allowed eToro to run the ad on its platform. While the fine is almost negligible for a firm such as Google, it is a sign that regulators are maintaining their aggressive stance towards the cryptocurrency space.
This new fine is the fifth Google will be receiving from the FAS. The FAS has previously fined Google 800,000 rubles for a similar offense. A top executive of the FAS, Ekaterina Solovieva, revealed that the FAS doesn’t joke about preventing its citizens from being exposed to adverts of firms not legally licensed by the country.
She further said, “We always put out warning notices via the media to our citizens to alert them of the need to be careful about online companies asking for payment for any services or products.”
Leeds United FC Gets eToro Sponsorship Deal
Top-flight English football club, Leeds United, has reached an agreement with eToro. Part of the deal involves eToro promoting their services and products using the perimeter advertising board and media backdrops on the club’s stadium during their home matches. Also, eToro will get some promotions off the club’s ticketing and social handles. Leeds United is the latest addition eToro’s premier league football club family as the exchange already has partnership deals with Crystal Palace, Southampton, and Leicester City.
eToro also has sponsorship deals with many German football clubs such as Eintracht Frankfurt, Vfl Wolfsburg and RB Leipzig. eToro’s sponsorship manager, Dylan Holman, opined that the company keeps looking for opportunities to sign deals with football clubs because they have the highest target audience. Holman reiterated that the experience has been rewarding as eToro now ranks as the number one trading platform in the UK despite signing their first partnership deal in the premier league three years ago.
He also said, “the usual branding isn’t as important as the access to clubs’ audience and individual rights.” However, eToro is also stepping outside the football club to other sports. It recently signed a 3-year agreement with Australia’s Rugby team.
Kim Kardashian And UK’s FCA
In other news, UK’s FCA has accused Kim Kardashian of promoting a “scam-like” digital token using her social handle. Chairman of the agency, Charles Randell, used Kim’s Instagram post to warn UK investors of the risk in investing in unregulated tokens. Randell claimed that most people had lost their life savings based on the recommendations of their favorite celebrity about various digital assets.