The European Union is expanding its regulatory arsenal against online fraud, tightening rules for payment providers through the new Payment Services Regulation (PSR) and Payment Services Directive (PSD3), and demanding greater accountability from online platforms under the Digital Services Act (DSA). Yet Europe is fighting this battle in the dark:
Stablecoins, on-chain crypto-assets pegged to the value of fiat currencies such as the US dollar and Euro (USDT and USDC), are currently used predominantly as the “cash leg” of the crypto ecosystem: they serve as a settlement and liquidity instrument for trading and as a bridge between fiat and crypto
We have reviewed excerpts from the criminal case files concerning B2G GmbH. These records show that although BaFin had been aware of the laundering activities of Oleg Shvartsman and Rainer Treuer since November 2017, no SARs were filed with the FIU and/or law enforcement, and payment rails remained open until
Scam advertising on Meta’s platforms is no longer “just” a consumer harm story; it is increasingly a litigation story in the United States. In late 2025, Reuters published a series of investigations describing how Meta internally tracked “high-risk” scam ads, assessed legal exposure, and debated advertiser verification approaches under regulatory
The European Union has reached a political agreement on its long-awaited Retail Investment Strategy (RIS), a reform package aimed at encouraging retail participation in capital markets and improving consumer protection. Yet, the final compromise reveals a familiar pattern: the European financial lobby has once again succeeded in neutralising the most
Scam advertising on Facebook and Instagram is not a niche problem—it’s a systemic consumer-protection risk, with cross-border impacts and real financial harm. Recently, Reuters published a series of investigations alleging that fraud and prohibited ads remain widespread on Meta’s platforms, supported by internal documents and on-platform tests. For consumer organisations
On 5 December 2025, the European Commission imposed a €120 million fine on X (formerly Twitter) for breaches of transparency obligations under the Digital Services Act (DSA), citing deceptive design related to “verified” blue checkmarks, deficiencies in the advertising repository, and failures regarding researchers’ access to public data. For victims
The revision of the EU Victims’ Rights Directive announced on 10 December 2025 is presented as a major step forward for crime victims in Europe, just like the new PSR/PSD3 package is sold as a breakthrough for payment users. But for online investment fraud victims, the reform is a missed
The European Commission is preparing the Digital Fairness Act (DFA) to tackle manipulative online practices such as dark patterns, addictive design, subscription traps, profiling, influencer marketing, and misleading in-app purchases (adjusting existing rules and directives). Following the discussion of the Digital Fairness Act Consultation process, BEUC, the European Consumer Organisation, has
On 3 December 2025, the Court of Appeal in The Hague granted the Dutch prosecutor’s request to stop the criminal prosecution of ING’s former CEO in the so-called “Houston” money-laundering case (ECLI:NL:GHDHA:2025:2436). From now on, it is clear: after almost a decade of debate around ING’s role in massive AML
