Spanish trade associations appeal “disproportionate” gambling ad ban

Spanish trade bodies Jdigital and the Association of Information Media (AMI) have launched appeals to overturn the country’s gambling ad ban as outlined in the Royal Decree on Commercial Communications of Gambling Activities.

The associations, which represent Spain’s online gambling operators and media providers respectively, filed the appeals at the Spanish Supreme Court, where AMI argued the decree unfairly penalises media firms.

Jdigital has long opposed the Royal Decree, claiming the Spanish government is on an “ideological crusade” to implement crushing regulation against the country’s gambling market.

The trade body, which represents more than 80% of Spain’s online gambling operators, has suggested that the new restrictions, which include the Covid-19-inspired ‘horario de madrugada’ window of 1am to 5am for all gambling ads, could be devastating for the market.

In November, when the decree first came into force, Jdigital CEO Andrea Vota told EGR the trade body was “99% certain” that it would launch a lawsuit against the Spanish government over the decree, a threat which it has now followed up on.

Jdigital launched the lawsuit based on its conviction that its “disproportionality” would lead to a lack of protection for consumers.

The trade body acknowledged the need for advertising controls but said the framework must be “efficient and proportionate”, instead of weakening the legal market or Spanish regulator DGOJ.

“The regulation recently approved at the request of the Ministry of Consumption is incoherent with the reality of the online gambling sector in Spain,” said Jdigital.

“It is clearly disproportionate and, not only will it be effective to solve the problems that the coalition government parties have been denouncing, without data, but will, in all likelihood, aggravate them, contributing to the growth of the illegal market,” Jdigital added.

In its appeal, AMI argued that Spain’s media operators have been “economically hindered” by the requirement to conform to the decree, especially given the rescheduled UEFA European Championships and the Tokyo Olympics.

Both events, which draw significant media and sponsorship revenue, were postponed in 2020 following the global coronavirus pandemic.

However, the popular sports events could be delayed even further, potentially putting them even closer to the proposed advertising blackout, scheduled to begin in September 2021.

Spain’s football clubs, which could stand to lose out from the adjoined sponsorship ban, have been given until the end of the season to terminate existing sponsorship deals.

The announcement of the decree saw marketing spend by Spanish-facing operators significantly increase during Q3 2020 to €150m, an annual increase of 81.4% and an astronomical 269.5% rise from Q2 2020.