The Supreme Administrative Court (Korkein Hallinto Oikeus- KHO) has ruled on two important cases related to the marketing of gambling services, said the National Police Board in a press release on Friday.

Once of the cases concerns the sports channel Eurosport, which repeatedly broadcast advertisements from foreign gambling companies targeted at Finland.

Some of the advertisements were in Finnish. The Gambling Administration at the National Police Board of Finland found Eurosport to have violated the Lotteries Act and issued a prohibition decision in 2021 for marketing in breach of the Lotteries Act.

Eurosport appealed the decision to Helsinki Administrative Court, which resolved the matter in Eurosport’s favour in 2023.

The rationale for the Court’s decision was based on the AVMS Directive on audiovisual media services.

According to the Administrative Court, the National Police Board was not entitled to prohibit the marketing of gambling services because the broadcast came from another EU country and was protected by the country of origin principle. The Administrative Court held that the commercial breaks were part of the broadcast.

The Supreme Administrative Court saw things otherwise, however, and held that the AVMS Directive does not apply to the marketing of gambling services.

According to the Supreme Administrative Court, Member States may restrict the marketing of gambling services to reduce their harmful effects and rather than a commercial break being able to be considered as being part of a broadcast, the broadcast is discontinued for the duration of the commercial break.

The Supreme Administrative Court has referred the case back to Helsinki Administrative Court because Helsinki Administrative Court did not rule on each of the grounds of Eurosport’s complaint, such as the correctness of the administrative procedure and the reasonableness of the conditional fine.

The other decision issued by the Supreme Administrative Court concerns the marketing prohibition issued to gambling services company BML Group Limited by the National Police Board in 2023.

The company concerned is a subsidiary of the Swedish gambling services company Betsson. According to the National Police Board, the company promoted the sale of gambling services directly and indirectly in Mainland Finland on its website.

For example, the company used Finnish celebrities as advertising faces for its gambling services, used expressions that appealed to Finnish consumers and advertised the games on Finnish websites.

BML Group appealed the decision to Helsinki Administrative Court, which in February 2024 dismissed the appeal, which resulted in the prohibition entering into force and the company being subject to payment blocks.

BML Group Limited appealed the decision to the Supreme Administrative Court, whose interim prohibition on enforcement resulted in the company being removed from the list of payment blocks for the time of the proceedings.

However, the Supreme Administrative Court ultimately did not grant leave to appeal, which means that the marketing prohibition issued by the National Police Board has now entered into force and the company has been added to the list of payment blocks maintained by the National Police Board.