Swedish court upholds regulator’s fine on website for linking to global gambling websites

A Swedish court has upheld Sweden’s Lotteriinspektionen regulatory body’s fine of SEK100k (US$11,100) on a Swedish media outlet called Nyheter24 (News24) for providing a hyperlink to an online gambling website that does not have a gaming license in Sweden. The media outlet refused to remove the hyperlink despite warned by the regulator.

The case started in April 2014, when Lotteriinspektionen filed a case against Nyheter24 for linking to the international sites. At that time, the Swedish law banned such hyperlinks to international gambling sites. Despite this ban, non-Swedish operators routinely account for over one-quarter of the country’s total gambling revenue.

Fast forward to October 2017, when the injunction against Nyheter24 came into force thanks to a Supreme Administrative Court ruling. One month later, Lotteriinspektionen found that Nyheter24 was still displaying the hyperlinks, prompting the regulator to ask the court to bring down their financial penalty hammer. Lotteriinspektionen also went after a number of other media outlets that continued to ignore its warnings to knock it off, already.

Swedish media outlets – whether print, online or television – have for years thumbed their noses at the gaming regulator’s huffing and puffing, in part due to the European Commission having declared Sweden’s protection of its state-run Svenska Spel gambling monopoly to be in violation of European Union rules on free trade in goods and services among EU member states.

Nyheter24 can file an appeal to the Chamber of Commerce in Jönköping, but the fine comes only one month after Sweden’s Court of Appeal upheld a lower court ruling that spanked two other local media outlets for linking to international gambling sites.

Source: CalvinAyre