Advertising in the metaverse. A quasi-legal overview

Maybe it started as traditionally and old-fashion as possible, just with billboards and postcards. Then radio. Television. Digital billboards on the streets. Telephones. Internet. And from the internet.. things just exploded – an unprecedented explosion. The internet was maybe the Big Bang of the advertising. The moment advertising have started expanding everywhere and in any possible shape: videos, photos, articles, bots, GIFs, voices, online advertising, personalised advertising, targeted advertising, display advertising, search advertising, programmatic advertising, advertising by use of the internet-of-things (IoT). When one could say that the state of arts in advertising was reached and that expanding advertising universe started to cool down, technology went further again. A virtual and limitless world has been created and with it, the potential of advertising has been once again unveiled. Advertising was re-born in a new universe, the metaverse, claimed to be lawless. This paper will focus on how ‘lawless’ is the advertising in the metaverse and what possible legal issues might be encountered by publishers, advertisers, influencers and consumers.