Why Martin Lewis is suing Facebook

Consumer advice expert Martin Lewis is suing Facebook over claims that more than 50 fake adverts bearing his name have been published on the social media site.

Lewis, the founder of website MoneySavingExpert, is expected to lodge court papers at the High Court today for a defamation lawsuit against the web giant, which he alleges failed to prevent and remove the ads swiftly.

Several of the ads featured Lewis’s image, and endorsements purporting to be from him, and were allegedly used to “scam thousands of pounds out of people”, says Sky News.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

Lewis said: “There are customers who have lost a lot of money. Some of them won’t even talk to me because they've seen my face on the advert and think it's me who has scammed them - it’s an absolute disgrace.

“I've had enough of this. It's affecting my reputation, but more importantly, it is affecting real people who are handing over money in good faith while the scammers are raking in the cash.”

One woman had parted with £100,000 in “a binary trading nightmare” with an operation that had attached his name to its advertising, he said. She was eventually able to recover her money, having paid by card, The Guardian reports.

In a statement issued in response to the allegations, Facebook said: “We do not allow adverts which are misleading or false on Facebook and have explained to Martin Lewis that he should report any adverts that infringe his rights and they will be removed.

“We are in direct contact with his team, offering to help and promptly investigating their requests, and only last week confirmed that several adverts and accounts that violated our advertising policies had been taken down.”