Group Legal Claim Against Meta

A group legal claim is being launched against Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram,over its alleged failure to remove fraudulent advertisements from its platforms.

Meta Group Claims, being fronted by Richardson Hartley Law, is looking for scam victims who lost money due to an advertisement hosted on Facebook or Instagram. Their hope is that have a group of litigants rather than each pursuing indivdual claims wil have more of an impact.

The group is still in the early stages and is currently only looking for people to register interest. It's looking for victims who have:

• Lost money as a direct result of a fraudent advert hosted by Facebook or Instagram;

• Lost more than £2000;

• Live in the United Kingdom;

• Lost the money within the last six years.

If you have made a claim with your bank to recoup money lost by a scam ad and it has been returned to you, you are unable to register your interest in the group claim.

If you feel that you wanted to register, be aware - it won't be a quick process, the legal team will take a cut of what is awarded to you as their fee and there is the possiblity that you may lose money if the claim fails - it's unlikely, but still possible. Money Saving Expert has an article explaining everything.

Martin Richardson from Richardson Hartley Law appeared on ITV's Good Morning Britain at the start of June to draw attention to the group claim, saying that Meta has the technology to detect and remove fraudulent adverts and fails to do so, while generating revenue for hosting the advert while innocent victims lose out.

Reuters reported in 2025 that 10% of Meta's revenue for the previous year would come from scam ads and banned goods - that's $16 billion. In 2022, internal company documents from Meta claimed that 70% of newly active advertisers were promoting scams, illicit goods or low quality products, though the company claims that it routingly disables new accounts, some on the day they are created.

An internal Meta review from last year admits that “It is easier to advertise scams on Meta platforms than Google,” though does not details as to why. Universal verification could halt the flow of scam advertisers on Facebook and Instagram, and would cost $2 billion to set up, but the company has reportedly adopted a "reactive only" stance, meaning that they will only do more to stop fraudulent accounts if they are made to, and that means the user experience would vary from country to country, depending on what the legislation would be in a particular area.

For example, earlier this year Reuters tried to run two simultaneous scam ads on Facebook in the UK and Australia, advertising an investment with large projected returns. The Australia one was banned while the UK one sailed through.

The Financial Conduct Authority reports that in November 2025, more than 1,000 adverts for currency trading and high risk financial opportunites were posted on Facebook by advertisers not authorised to promote them. It is why the Chartered Trading Standards Institute is calling on the Government to do more to hold Meta to account.