Agcom (IT): new heavy penalties on Google and Twitch for illegal online gambling advertising

Hosting services providers held liable for illegal online gambling advertising by the Italian regulator

On 5 December 2023, the Italian Communication Authority (Agcom) adopted new and significant sanctions against Google and Twitch for violating the Italian legal prohibition of online gambling advertising in progammes targeting Italian audiences. 

• Google Ireland Ltd. (YouTube) was fined with a penalty of € 2,250,000.00 (resolution no. 317/23/CONS).

• Twitch Interactive Germany GmbH was fined, for the first time, €900,000.00 (resolution no. 318/23/CONS).

• Furthermore, both platforms were ordered to remove the related videos (notice & take down) and prevent (notice & stay down) the uploading of similar illegal content by those entities.

On the online intermediaries’ liability:

Google and Twitch were held responsible as “owners of the means of video dissemination published by third parties with whom they had specific commercial partnership contracts”.

According to article 6 of the Digital Services Act, (previously article 14 of the e-commerce directive), providers of hosting services shall not be liable for information stored on their services on condition that they do not have actual knowledge of the illegal content or upon obtaining such knowledge or awareness, acts expeditiously to remove or to disable the content.

In both cases, Agcom considered that the platform providers had actual knowledge of the illegal content. Such knowledge was inferred from the terms of the commercial partnership between the platforms and the concerned channels editors.

It is the third time that Google is held responsible for such violation by the Italian regulator (see EPRA news).

For more information, see the Iris Newsletter from the European Audiovisual Observatory.

Source: Agcom

In both cases, Agcom considered that the platform providers had actual knowledge of the illegal content. Such knowledge was inferred from the terms of the commercial partnership between the platforms and the concerned channels editors.

It is the third time that Google is held responsible for such violation by the Italian regulator (see previous EPRA news).

For more information: see article published in the Iris Newsletter from the European Audiovisual Observatory