What you need to know:

• Today was outgoing ACCC chairman Rod Sims’ last day, and he used it to file a Federal Court case against Facebook’s parent company, Meta.
• Meta is alleged to have knowingly profited and allowed ads targeting its users that used prominent Australians to promote a cryptocurrency scam. One person lost $650,000 in the scheme.

It was Rod Sims’ last day as chairman of the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC), and he took one final shot at a big tech platform: Launching a lawsuit against Facebook’s parent company, Meta, for making money from a cryptocurrency ad scam featuring prominent Australians.

Sims was appointed as chair of the ACCC back in August 2011 for an initial five-year term and has been re-appointed two more times. He is the longest serving boss of the ACCC ever.

He used his last day to file a Federal Court case against Meta for publishing ads that used images of well-known people – businessman Dick Smith, TV presenter David “Kochie” Koch and former NSW Premier Mike Baird, for example – to promote investment in a cryptocurrency scheme. One person lost more than $650,000 in one of the scams.

The ads linked to a fake media article that included fake quotes from the person. When users signed up, they were repeatedly – and forcefully – contacted and convinced to deposit funds into fake schemes.

“The essence of our case is that Meta is responsible for these ads that it publishes on its platform,” Sims said.

“It is a key part of Meta’s business to enable advertisers to target users who are most likely to click on the link in an ad to visit the ad’s landing page, using Facebook algorithms. Those visits to landing pages from ads generate substantial revenue for Facebook.”

The ACCC alleges Meta knowingly allowed the ads to continue to be displayed, despite vigorous denials from the public figures used in them. They caused damage to individuals who lost money, as well as reputation damage to the high-profile people.

“Meta failed to take sufficient steps to stop fake ads featuring public figures, even after those public figures reported to Meta that their name and image were being featured in celebrity endorsement cryptocurrency scam ads,” Sims said. “In one shocking instance, we are aware of a consumer who lost more than $650,000 due to one of these scams being falsely advertised as an investment opportunity on Facebook. This is disgraceful.”

The ACCC is seeking declarations, injunctions, penalties, costs and other orders.

Gone but not retired

Sims has had a monumental impact on consumer and competition policy in his more than decade-long chairmanship. The ACCC has successfully extracted $200 million from Facebook and Google for their use of news media content under the News Media Bargaining Code, which other jurisdictions are actively emulating. Likewise, the ACCC has won cases against Telstra, Volkswagen and education provider AIPE.

“I assure you all, I am not retiring,” Sims told the National Press Club in February. “I will have positions that will see me continue to advocate on many issues, both in Australia and internationally.” In September last year, he was appointed vice-chair for digital coordination and Asia-Pacific liaison at the International Competition Network.

He will be replaced for Gina Cass-Gottlieb, who takes over later from Monday.