A court has ruled that Google and Twitter cannot be held liable for fake adverts that use celebrities’ images without their permission to sell cryptocurrency products.

TV personalities Jort Kelder and Arjen Lubach, as well as Alexander Klöpping, the founder of online news service Blendle, had asked judges to order the online giants to take down the offending adverts and tweets.

But the district court in Amsterdam ruled that Google and Twitter had taken sufficient steps and responsibility for the adverts lay with the companies that made them.

Google was ordered to hand over the details of the advertisers to Kelder, but the court said the applicants had failed to explain why they needed the information from Twitter.

Google said in a statement it welcomed the judgment. ‘We work very hard to deter fraudsters from our platform and we are pleased that the court recognised our efforts today.’