Schedule 3: Timing of providers’ assessments Chapter 5: Duties about fraudulent advertising Section 39: Duties about fraudulent advertising: Category 2A services
This section sets out the fraudulent advertising duties for providers of Category 2A1 services. Category 2A service providers must operate their services using proportionate systems and processes designed to prevent individuals encountering fraudulent advertisements in or via search results of the service, minimise the amount of time that fraudulent advertising is present, and swiftly remove fraudulent advertising once they are made aware of it through any means. A fraudulent advertisement to which the duties on providers apply is defined in subsection (3).
	Subsection (2) specifies that a Category 2A service provider must include information in a publicly available statement about any proactive technology that it uses to comply with its duties in respect of fraudulent advertising.
	Subsection (4) defines what is meant by references to encountering fraudulent advertisements "in or via search results" of a search service. This includes interacting with a paid-for advertisement in search results, for example by clicking on the fraudulent advertisement in a search result and then being redirected to a web page which was linked to the original fraudulent advertisement. Encountering does not extend to any subsequent interactions with a website, for example leaving the original fraudulent advertisement web page.
	Subsection (5) specifies that if a person is the provider of more than one Category 2A service, the duties set out in this section apply in relation to each such service.
	Subsection (6) sets out factors for determining proportionality regarding service providers’ systems and processes to comply with the duty about fraudulent advertising. These are a) the nature and severity of potential harm from fraudulent advertisement and b) the degree of control a provider has over the placement of advertisements on the service. This recognises that a Category 2A service provider may rely on third party intermediaries to display paid advertisements on its service, and will therefore have less control over measures to prevent the posting of fraudulent adverts.