Fresh Hurdle Awaits Online Advertisers as ARCON Commences Vetting  

Raheem Akingbolu

Five months after the Advertising Regulatory Council of Nigeria (ARCON) slammed a N30 billion suit against Meta Platforms Incorporated (owners of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp platforms) and its agent, AT3 Resources Limited, at the Federal High Court, Abuja Judicial Division over issues related to advert vetting, the regulatory body has announced that online advertisements, targeting Nigerians and the Nigeria market, must as from this month pass through the vetting process of the agency before exposure.

Giving this directive in Lagos, the Director General of the agency, Dr. Lekan Fadolapo, warned online media practitioners, to comply with the new directive or risk a minimum fine of N500,000 or some jail terms.

According to him, it is now mandatory for any ad material to pass through the council’s Advertising Standards Panel, for vetting before such are exposed.

Fadolapo explained that it took the council this long to come up with the new regulatory regime since the old APCON law did not put the council in good stead to regulate advertisements in that space.

According to him, the new ARCON Act of 2022 had made it adequately equipped to carry out such regulatory functions.

While insisting that the apex regulatory body had not come to regulate the social media space in Nigeria, Fadolapo however argued that the intention, of the latest development, is to draw the line, and begin to ensure that onlime media practitioners, skit makers, comedians, bloggers, vloggers, and others, putting adverts on their spaces, comply with the country’s advertising law.

“ARCON is not regulating social media. It is not an attempt by the federal government to regulate that space. Nobody is regulating that. We are not regulating comedy; we are not regulating the activities of bloggers. But what we are saying is that there is a space called advertising, that space is a regulated space and if you are going to play in that space, then you are moving into a regulated space. In that space you will be regulated,” he added. 

He explained that the event was designed to educate and sensitise media practitioners and agencies on the online space, on the new law, and its attendant penalties, if violated.

In his lecture titled: “Business of Advertising in the Digital Space,” the Keynote Speaker, Charles Odenigbo, counseled practitioners on the online space on the need to equip themselves of the laws to avoid being sanctioned.

“Ignorance is no excuse in law. It is always better to be on the side of the law, than run foul of it and face the repercussions,” he stated.

Odenigbo, an expert in advertising law, added that the new ARCON law empowers the council to set up a tribunal and prosecute erring practitioners.

“It has equipped the agency the power to go the whole hog in ensuring online media practitioners comply with this. Nobody wants to be an ex-convict since it deprives such person some benefits that the law-abiding ones will have access to; hence the need for you all to comply,” he added.

In October last year, ARCON announced that it has lodged a lawsuit against Meta Platforms Incorporated, seeking a declaration, among others, that the continued publication and exposure of various advertisements directed at the Nigerian market through Facebook and Instagram platforms by Meta Platforms Incorporated without ensuring the same is vetted and approved before exposure is illegal, unlawful and a violation of the extant advertising law in Nigeria.

ARCON stated that Meta Platforms Incorporated’s continued exposure of unvetted adverts had also led to the loss of revenue to the federal government.

The regulatory body said it was seeking N30 billion in sanctions for violating the advertising laws and loss of revenue due to Meta Incorporated’s continued exposure of unapproved adverts on its platforms.

In the recent time, the global brand has continued to meet resistance in many markets. For instance, Meta reached a $37.5 million settlement of a lawsuit in the US in August 2022, after accusations that the parent of Facebook violates users’ privacy by tracking their movements through their smartphones without permission.

The global company also sought the dismissal of a lawsuit filed by Sweden-headquartered royalty-free soundtrack provider Epidemic Sound last year over the alleged copyright infringement.

Epidemic Sound, which owns a catalogue of about 35,000 royalty-free tracks and 90,000 sound effects, sued Meta in July, 2022, alleging that the social media giant “knowingly, intentionally and brazenly” stole music created by hundreds of musicians, songwriters, producers and vocalists.