The initiative is coordinated by, among others, Sveriges Konsumenter and directed towards the EU Commission, as well as national supervisory authorities such as Post- och telestyrelsen. The goal is to assess whether the tech companies comply with the European regulations for digital services, the Digital Services Act.
According to the Digital Services Act, platforms should act against fraud and advertisements for illegal goods and services. But our review shows that there is a big difference between what they say they do – and what they actually do, says Johanna Hållén, Secretary-General of Sveriges Konsumenter.
The reporting parties are now handing over the case to decision-makers to assess which measures and possible sanctions are required to secure the environment for users.
We want them to investigate whether the platforms comply with the regulations in the Digital Services Act and do enough to protect consumers from fraud. If not, the EU Commission must issue fines, says Johanna Hållén.
Ignored Reports
During the period December 2025 to March 2026, a review was conducted where nearly 900 suspected scam ads were identified. These were reported through the platforms' own systems.
The results from the report "Sponsored by scammers" show that only 27 percent of the material was removed. At the same time, 52 percent of the reports were either rejected or left completely unanswered, while the remaining ads were stated to have been deleted for other reasons.
The review shows that the platforms are not succeeding in stopping scam ads proactively, but also that they are not doing enough when they receive information about fraud, says Johanna Hållén.
Known Profiles Exploited
Many of the scams on social media are based on illegally using images and names from well-known people. Both Sveriges Television and TV4 have previously reported how their employees have become involuntary faces for this type of campaign, which contributes to deceiving users.
More than half of the reported ads in this new review remain online and risk deceiving a lot of consumers every day. Now we want the EU Commission and the authorities to act and show that the Digital Services Act is not a paper tiger but that we are serious when we say that we will protect consumers, says Johanna Hållén.