Mr Green hit with Swedish injunction after marketing to self-excluded customers

William Hill’s Mr Green subsidiary has been hit with an injunction by the Swedish Consumer Agency (KO) for marketing to Swedish players who had self-excluded.

Mr Green and a second company, Karl Casino-operator L&L Europe, were both found to have sent direct marketing mail towards players registered under the Spelpaus national self-exclusion scheme earlier this year.

As a result, KO has registered injunctions against both firms and issued the warning that they will receive a fine of SEK2m (£162,038) if they make the same mistake again.

A spokesperson for William Hill said the mailing was due to a technical error which had since been rectified.

“It is however important to note that the players concerned would not have been able to login or play,” the spokesperson said.

Johanna Nyblom, legal counsel at KO, said the law on marketing towards self-excluded players is “very clear” and violations of that law should not be permitted.

“The law is very clear on this point. The idea is that players who want to pause or stop playing should be completely protected from direct calls to play and from getting advertising directly on mobile or via e-mail,” Nyblom said.

L&L Europe did not respond to an EGR request for comment.

The case is KO’s second major action on advertising in the space of a week following the conclusion of its long-running case against Ninja Casino operator Global Gaming over so-called aggressive advertising by the firm.

The Swedish patents and markets court found that Global Gaming had breached the requirement for moderation in its marketing practices, prohibiting the Malta-based firm from using so-called takeover advertising in its marketing.