Mr Green loses Swedish appeal over potential penalty reduction

Mr Green has lost its appeal to have a potential SEK2m (£164,000) financial penalty reduced in Sweden.

The penalty was originally issued against the William Hill-owned casino brand by the Swedish Consumer Ombudsman (KO) in 2019.

A KO investigation found the firm had marketed to Swedish players who had previously self-excluded.

The KO discovered Mr Green had sent direct mail marketing and SMS messages to the players on three occasions during June 2019, an error which the firm later attributed to technical issues.

Players who had self-excluded were unable to log in or gamble on its site, however. At the time, KO issued an injunction against Mr Green, which included a proviso that the operator would automatically receive a SEK2m fine if such an incident ever reoccurred.

However, Mr Green applied to the Stockholm District Court to have the amount of the prospective fine reduced to SEK50,000 on the grounds the fine was disproportionate, given the operators action in rectifying the error and no players being able to access the site.

The operator argued the penalty should not apply to any players who receive marketing within 24 hours of registering with the Spelpaus self-exclusion platform.

Mr Green argued there was a “highly significant risk” the operator would have to pay the fine for violating the ban on this basis. In its appeal, the firm also said it would have to consider the impact on its ability to send direct mail marketing to customers if applied.

In its defence, KO argued that Mr Green had no grounds to ask for the fine to be reduced since it was possible for the company to abide by the articles of the injunction.

“Mr Green can choose to collect information about up to 10,000 players at a time but can also choose to collect information about fewer players,” said KO.

In its decision, the court agreed with KO’s assessment, asserting Mr Green’s responsibility for abiding by Swedish gambling laws. The court also argued that applying an arbitrary 24-hour window in which communications could potentially be sent to self-excluded players without regulatory action being taken was not in keeping with Swedish law.

“Creating such a deadline through practices as requested by Mr Green is not appropriate, given the great protection interest,” the court wrote.

In addition, the court asked Swedish authorities to provide “concrete” guidelines on whether marketing to players who had self-excluded includes email and SMS marketing.

Mr Green has confirmed it is currently assessing a secondary appeal against the court decision in the Swedish higher administrative court.