The Italian Communications Regulatory Authority – Autorità per le Garanzie nelle Comunicazioni (AGCOM) – has issued a fine of €1.35 million ($1.47 million) to X (formerly Twitter) for violations of gambling advertising regulations.
According to a press release, the commissioner of AGCOM, Elisa Giomi, approved the fine on the basis that the company violated article 9 of the so-called dignity decree (resolution no.65/24/CONS).
During its investigation, AGCOM found that the company had breached the regulations in relation to the advertising of gambling products by nine individual accounts. This included content that promoted sites that carry out gaming and betting activities for real money. AGCOM noted that the company failed to block the activity of two of the nine accounts during its content review process and has included an order to block the accounts alongside the fine. It also pointed out that each of the nine accounts held the blue check mark of a verified account.
The regulator has also warned X that it must not allow any further breaches relating to these or any other accounts on its platform.
Italy’s Fight Against Illegal Gambling Ads
This is the fourth time in four years that AGCOM has levied fines in relation to breaches of this legislation. In October 2020, Google was fined €100,000 ($109,405) for featuring a paid search ad from the now-defunct website sublime-casino.com.
In August 2022, Google faced a €750,000 ($820,571) penalty for displaying gambling advertisements promoting the operator Spike on YouTube.
More recently, in December 2023, YouTube and Twitch were collectively fined €3.15 million ($3.42 million) by AGCOM due to the presence of 20,000 gambling-related videos on their platforms, which contravened Italy’s strict ban on gambling advertisements.
The latest action by AGCOM brings the total of fines issued in 2024 to €35,246,646 ($38,556,488).
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