When the Advertising Regulatory Council of Nigeria (ARCON) sent Facebook Nigeria a letter in October 2024 demanding N60 billion for alleged advertising violations, it did what many Nigerian regulatory agencies have quietly been doing for years. It decided a company was guilty, calculated a penalty, and presented the bill, all in a single document, without ever asking the company to explain itself.
A Federal High Court in Lagos has now said that cannot stand.
In a judgment delivered in Suit No. FHC/L/CS/2205/2024, Justice Yellim Bogoro declared ARCON’s Notice of Violation unconstitutional, unlawful, and void, permanently restraining the regulator from enforcing it. The ruling voided one of the largest regulatory sanctions ever issued against a technology company in Nigeria, but its implications stretch well beyond advertising law or Facebook.
It raises a question that sits at the heart of how Nigeria regulates its corporate sector: can a government agency decide that a company has committed a criminal offence, impose a massive financial penalty, and do all of this through a letter, without giving the accused company any opportunity to respond?
The court’s answer was no. And a legal expert who reviewed the judgment told Technext the ruling reflects a pattern of regulatory overreach that goes far beyond ARCON.
What ARCON did and where it went wrong with Facebook
The dispute began after ARCON accused Facebook Nigeria of exposing advertisements on Facebook and Instagram to Nigerian audiences without obtaining prior approval from the Advertising Standards Panel, in violation of the ARCON Act 2022 and the Nigerian Code of Advertising. The regulator issued a notice directing the company to stop and demanding N60 billion for what it described as repeated violations.
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Read Full Article by Mubarak Bankole at technext24.com
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