Arsenal, London’s professional football club, got into deep waters with UK’s advertising watchdog over the promotion of fan tokens.
ASA, UK’s advertising regulator
The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) is responsible for all advertising across the United Kingdom. It is mandated to ensure advertisers follow rules and regulations governed by them.
“Our mission is to make every UK ad a responsible ad. We respond to concerns and complaints from consumers and businesses and take action to ban ads which are misleading, harmful, offensive or irresponsible,” notes ASA.
Fan tokens were for engagement, not investment, explains Arsenal
Arsenal, one of the most beloved and successful football clubs in England, became the latest among other companies that have fallen on the wrong side of ASA.
In August this year, the football club ran an Arsenal Fan Token promotion on its Facebook page and website. “In order to buy $AFC fan tokens, you need to purchase the cryptocurrency Chiliz,” read the ad on Arsenal’s Facebook page.
Arsenal gave a disclaimer, “Please remember that the future value of Fan Tokens is dependent on supply and demand, and can therefore go up as well as down. Fans should be aware that they could lose some or all of their money invested. We advise you to spend only what you can afford and seek independent financial advice if required.”
Despite the disclaimer, ASA alleged the ads were misleading because:
- The target audience had little knowledge about cryptocurrencies, therefore, they were taken advantage of
- Arsenal didn’t mention the risk of crypto assets
- Arsenal failed to elaborate that their fan token was a crypto asset, which to be obtained, one has to open an account, buy and exchange with another cryptocurrency
The football club, however, differed with ASA and explained that the fan tokens it promoted were meant to encourage fan participation and not a financial investment for monetary gain.
Their Fan Tokens promotion was formed under a partnership with Socios — creators of fan tokens. The promotion dubbed ‘Fan Engagement Programme’ allows fans to engage with each other on the Socios platform, engage and vote in club decisions — which requires one token.
Unconvinced, ASA said, though fan tokens differed from unregulated cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin, and ethereum, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) categorized them as crypto assets.
ASA advised the club to ensure their ads in the future clearly educated consumers on the risks of crypto investments.
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