Major Latin American E-Commerce Company Bans Cryptocurrency-Related Ads

The largest e-commerce company in Latin America, Mercado Livre, has banned cryptocurrency advertising on their website, Cointelegraph em Português reported on March 18.

The development was revealed in an exclusive interview with Cointelegraph em Português after the company’s users reported receiving of emails informing them about the change in Mercado Livre’s policy.

The new policy requires all users to remove their listings pertaining to digital currency, otherwise all listings will automatically be taken down from the platform starting March 19. One of the users received a letter, saying:

"We would like to inform you that as of March 19, you will no longer be able to advertise used products in the following categories:

- Cryptocurrencies

- Prepaid cards for games

Because you have ads for used products that will soon be banned, we recommend that you end them. Otherwise, they will be finalized on the date mentioned above. "

Mercado Livre reportedly stated:

"Mercado Livre clarifies that as of March 19, crypto ads that are active on the site in the ‘used’ condition will automatically be finalized and new ads can only be created as ‘new products’."

Mercado Livre (or Mercado Libre in Spanish) has overtaken fellow e-commerce giant Amazon in Latin America. Earlier this month, the firm reportedly sealed a deal for a whopping $750 million investment via a sale of common stock to payments network PayPal.

Large technology firms like Google and Facebook have previously introduced similar bans. In March last year, Google announced the ban of all cryptocurrency-related ads of all types starting from June 2018. The move affected all of Google's ad products, meaning companies were not able to serve crypto-related ads on the search engine giant’s own sites, as well as third-party sites in its network.

In January, Google reportedly blacklisted keywords mentioning Ethereum (ETH) on its advertising platform. Google reportedly stated that cryptocurrency exchanges targeting the United States and Japan could be advertised on the platform, and that targeting other countries could be the reason for the ad rejection.

Last January, Facebook prohibited ads that use “misleading or deceptive promotional practices,” which reportedly includes ads of cryptocurrencies and initial coin offerings.