Paid Facebook ads with a late-payment charge

A question on promoting through paid Facebook ads when late payment carries a charge, in which Jordan's General Iftaa Department answered that they are permitted only through prepayment, not automatic billing. ¹

The questioner said he promotes and advertises through Facebook for fees he pays it, and that Facebook may let some advertisers defer payment for a set period on condition of a penalty if they pay late; he asked whether advertising is forbidden because of this condition. ¹

The Department said it had studied Facebook's ad types and found free and paid ads, with paid ads offering two methods: automatic billing and prepaid funds. ¹ It found in the terms for self-service paid ads a clause stating that overdue amounts accrue interest of 1% a month or the maximum allowed by law, whichever is lower, plus the costs of collection. ¹ It said that stipulating a penalty for late repayment of a debt is in principle forbidden as riba, and quoted the International Islamic Fiqh Academy's twelfth session that a penalty clause is allowed in financial contracts except where the original obligation is a debt. ¹ It concluded that paid ads are permitted through prepayment, which is free of the interest condition, and not through automatic billing, which contains it. ¹

Jordan's General Iftaa Department published this fatwa on aliftaa.jo as no. 3816, dated 15 October 2023. ¹ The museum records this text as a historical document attributed to the body or scholar that issued it; it issues no ruling of its own.