The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has upheld its ruling to ban two fan token adverts by Arsenal Football Club.
The original ruling in December 2021, which was appealed by Arsenal, found that the ads were “irresponsible” as they “trivialised” investment in cryptoassets.
The watchdog questioned two ads made by the English football club that promoted Arsenal fan tokens ($AFC) via the Socios platform.
The first breach (a) related to content on Arsenal’s official website – in particular a page posted on 6 August 2021 with the title ‘$AFC Fan Token: Everything you need to know’.
The second breach (b) was a Facebook post on the club’s official page, posted on 12 August 2021, which read: ‘$AFC is now live’ and asked fans: “What song do you want to hear when we win? Download the Socios app to get your token and vote”.
The ASA made three challenges against the ads in December 2021 – and they have all been upheld in the appeal. The challenges were:
- Ads (a) and (b) were “irresponsible because they took advantage of consumers’ inexperience or credulity and trivialised investment in cryptoassets”;
- Ads (a) and (b) were “misleading because they failed to illustrate the risk of the investment”;
- Ad (a) was “misleading because it did not make clear the token was a cryptoasset, which could only be obtained by opening an account and exchanging with another cryptocurrency which had to be purchased”.
Trivialising investments
The ASA said on 10 August 2022: “The ads must not appear again in the form complained about. We told Arsenal Football Club plc to ensure that they made sufficiently clear that the value of investments in paid-for fan tokens was variable and as cryptoassets they were unregulated.
“We also told them to ensure that they did not mislead consumers by omitting material information in their ads, including that free fan tokens would require a consumer to open up a cryptoassets exchange account and that paid-for fan tokens were a cryptoasset that had to be bought using another cryptocurrency.
“We told them to ensure that their future ads did not trivialise investment in cryptoassets by omitting appropriate and prominent risk warnings and did not irresponsibly take advantage of consumers’ lack of experience or credulity by not making clear that capital gains tax (CGT) could be due on cryptoasset profits.”
A spokesperson for Arsenal said: “We are disappointed by the ASA’s decision to uphold their ruling following our appeal.
“We have complied with the ASA’s guidance since the original ruling, and we will continue to comply in our future communications in this fast-moving area. We have been clear throughout that we take our responsibilities with regard to marketing to our supporters very seriously.
“In this situation, we carefully considered the communications to supporters regarding our promotions and provided information regarding financial risks.”
Regulator referee
Susannah Streeter, senior investment and markets analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown, said: ‘’The Advertising Standards Authority is wearing the referee shirt in the high stakes game of crypto trading and has once again shown the red card to Arsenal Football Club for flogging tokens without high-risk warnings attached.
“It’s cried foul on the club for not making it sufficiently clear that the value of investments in paid-for fan tokens was variable and that the crypto assets were unregulated.
“NFTs, which have been described as modern day trading cards, are seen as valuable streams of fresh revenue for football clubs, and for soccer stars who have been promoting other schemes.
“But with the value of crypto coins and tokens crashing in spectacular fashion in the last few months, as a wave of anxiety gripped financial markets, it’s left many hopeful fans in the stands clutching NFTs with hefty losses.”
