Swedish gambling regulator agrees with expansion of penalty fees

The Swedish regulator Spelinspektionen has agreed that marketing disruption fees should be expanded to cover more offences.

Sweden.- The gambling regulator Spelinspektionen has published a consultation response stating that it agrees with a proposal to expand Sweden’s law on “marketing disruption fees“.

The fees are a type of penalty issued for certain violations of Sweden’s Marketing Act (MFL). In a report entitled Modernized Consumer Protection, a government inquiry into consumer protection has recommended their expansion to cover a broader range of offences.

For the moment, the fees are only imposed for breaches of section 7 of the MFL for cases of “coercive” marketing.

However, the government’s report recommends expanding their use to also cover sections 5 and 6, which deal with infractions of good marketing practices, if the violation in question “appreciably affects or probably affects the recipient’s ability to make a well-founded transaction decision”. 

The report suggests that the maximum fine should be set at 4 per cent of an operator’s annual turnover.

Spelinspektionen said in its response: “The Swedish Gaming Inspectorate is positive about the inquiry’s proposal that the opportunity to decide on issuing a market disruption fee, according to section 29 of the MFL, shall be extended to include violations of Sections 5 and 6 of the MFL.”

Court slashes another fine issued by Swedish gambling regulator

The Administrative Court in Linköping has halved a penalty fee issued by the Swedish gambling regulator Spelinspektionen against Kindred for breaches of rules on bonuses.

The regulator had issued Spooniker with a penalty fee of SEK100m (€9.9m) along with a warning in March last year after finding it had offered unauthorised bonuses and unlicensed lottery games as promotions.

The court decision came just a day after Sweden’s Administrative Court quashed a fine that Spelinspektionen issued against Betsson last June.

The Court of Appeal in Jönköping has also reduced fines issued against Genesis Global and AG Communications to less than half of their original amount.