Sweden is set to look into excessive advertising

Gaming companies take a great risk if they don’t comply with regulations, the local watchdog said.

Sweden.- The Spelinspektionen, Sweden’s gambling regulatory authority, is expecting to set out a new plan to regulate the amount of gambling advertising. The watchdog said that there is currently an intensive debate about advertising and its content. It was also revealed that the regulator and its Consumer Agency have clarified their responsibilities.

The regulator said that many people have asked about current laws and how moderate advertisement should be and that the term moderate will be clarified in the long term. However, the regulator said that for companies that want to comply with the law, the ambiguity of the word “moderate” should not be a problem.

In several cases, the Swedish Consumer Agency has already taken a position on the issue of what is moderate. For example, in the Swedish Consumer Agency’s lawsuit filing submitted to the Patent and Market Court last December, a number of factors are decisive for the assessment of moderate advertising, said the Spelikspektionen.

Moreover, it was set that gaming companies that don’t follow the requirement for moderation in gaming advertisement take a great risk. “The Gaming Inspectorate’s sanctions are reverse-looking, which means that the Gaming Inspectorate can, with the help of the Gaming Act, impose backward sanctions if it is established in the Consumer Agency’s supervision that a company has violated the moderation requirement,” the regulator said.

In case of a serious violation of the law, the gaming license could be revoked, or if it is deemed sufficient, a warning call be notified. The latter could also be combined with a penalty fee. “A violation of the requirement of moderation is typically considered to be serious. The sanction that may be applicable in an individual case depends on several different factors, such as how long the infringement has been going on. The licensee’s actions in the supervisory matter of the Consumer Agency can also be of importance,” said the statement from the Swedish authority.