Italian media regulator fines Twitch and Google over gambling ad breaches
AGCOM hits search giant and streaming platform with €2.25m and €900,000 penalties, respectively, as the watchdog reveals over 20,000 online videos removed
The Autorità per le Garanzie nelle Comunicazioni (AGCOM) has fined Google and Twitch for breaching Italy’s rules around gambling advertising.
The communications watchdog issued YouTube, owned by Google’s parent company Alphabet Inc., with a fine of €2.25m (£1.94m), and Twitch, owned by Amazon, a €900,000 penalty.
AGCOM disclosed that required the pair to remove over 20,000 online videos that were found to be promoting various forms of gambling across more than 80 YouTube and Twitch channels.
The watchdog’s investigation found that video and streaming platforms had established partnerships with content creators responsible for producing and publishing content that violated the country’s advertising rules.
As part of Italy’s Dignity Decree, which was ushered into law in 2018, gambling advertising and sponsorship is banned, except for those promoting state-run lotteries.
The ban covers any form of advertising on TV and radio broadcasts, the press, billboards, the internet and social media.
This is the third time in as many years that the AGCOM has reprimanded Google.
In October 2020, Google was reportedly handed a €100,000 fine for displaying a paid-for search ad by now-defunct betting website sublime-casino.com on Google’s results page.
Then, in August 2022, Google was fined €750,000 over the publication of gambling advertising on YouTube.
The ads, which promoted the operator Spike, were created by TOP ADS, with the firm being fined €700,000 by the watchdog.
EGR has reached out to Twitch and Google for comment on this latest reprimand but is yet to receive comment, at the time of writing.