Swedish Gambling Authority loses Zimpler case after Court of Appeal ruling
Regulator told it doesn’t have the authority to impose an injunction on the payment provider to stop it from providing services to unlicensed operators
The Swedish Gambling Authority (SGA) has lost its appeal against fintech payment solutions provider Zimpler in the country’s Court of Appeal.
Back at the start of July 2023, the regulator ordered Sweden-based Zimpler to cease providing its services to unlicensed operators by the end of that month, alongside the threat of a SEK25m (£1.9m) fine for non-compliance.
Although Zimpler appealed the decision, it followed SGA’s order and began the process to stop its services in Q2 2023 to be completed by the following quarter.
In May 2024, Sweden’s Administrative Court ruled that the SGA lacked sufficient grounds to impose the injunction on Zimpler, as the payment provider was unaware its services were being used by companies that didn’t hold the required licence.
The SGA challenged the ruling and raised the issue to the Court of Appeal, on the grounds Zimpler was complicit in promoting illegal gambling in Sweden by entering into agreements with foreign operators in the first place.
The regulator also argued that illegal sites were attracting Swedish players by simply using services like Zimpler.
In a ruling issued on 7 February 2025, the Court of Appeal sided with the Administrative Court and rejected the SGA’s appeal.
The court stated that Sweden’s gambling regulation is ambiguous regarding what is defined as “targeting Swedish players” and therefore the SGA did not have the authority to stop Zimpler from providing its services to foreign companies.
The court ruling said: “The Court of Appeal finds that all provision of games by gambling companies that lack a Swedish licence is not prohibited under the Gambling Act. This applies, for example, to such online games that are not aimed at the Swedish market.
“The Gambling Act and its preparatory work lacks further concreteness regarding what is required for a gambling company to be considered to be targeting Sweden. This alone means the Court of Appeal finds that there were no conditions for the SGA to formulate the current injunction against Zimpler in a way that has occurred.
“In any case, the SGA has not shown that there was illegal gambling, nor that Zimpler has promoted such. The appeal is therefore rejected.”
So far in 2025, the SGA has imposed bans on unlicensed Curaçao-based operators in the form of Versus Odds BV and Goodwin NV.