Google wants to better fight ad fraud

The US agency will impose a regulation on advertisers, forcing them to obtain certification to distribute ads on financial services.

Google wants to prevent fraudsters from using its services for scams. Mountain View has a firm to fight financial fraud in advertising Notice, on October 3, expands its restrictions on financial products and services to France, Germany, Spain and Indonesia. According to these rules, it will be mandatory for promoters to obtain certification to promote financial services in these four countries.

This verification will be done in two stages. First, advertisers must be verified by G2, Google’s external compliance partner. To do this, they need to provide information such as the type of financial services they provide, the competent regulatory body or whether they are authorized to provide them through their registration number. In France, there are four such institutions: the Autorité des Marchés Financiers (AMF), the Prudential Control and Resolution Authority (ACPR), the Organization for the Registration of Insurance Intermediaries (ORIAS) and the Conseil National Order of Chartered Accountants. It is also mandatory for advertisers to prove that they are exempted from this obligation. Google also notes that this verification applies to people in the hierarchy. “There is a good reason to target users who are looking for this type of service rather than promoting financial services”. This includes search engines and e-commerce sites.

Once verified by G2, advertisers must submit a verification request to Google to serve ads for financial services. In France, domains ending in gouv.fr require government agencies to send a request directly to Google instead of going through the first step.

Google says it saw a sharp drop in reports of ads promoting financial scams after the regulation was first applied in the UK in September 2021. Giant hopes to get similar results by starting this verification program on January 24, 2023. “Effective after about four weeks” in four countries. On this date, advertisers who have not completed the new verification process will no longer be able to air advertisements for financial services.