AGCOM, the Media and Communications Authority of Italy, has issued sanctions of €2.25m and €900,000 on Google and Twitch respectively for violations of the advertising laws of the Dignity Decree.
Issuing the fines, AGCOM stated that its attention had been drawn to Google’s YouTube platform and the Twitch streaming service “following numerous reports received by the Authority”.
The Authority’s investigations uncovered in excess of 80 YouTube and Twitch channels with more than 20,000 videos promoting slot machines, gambling, sports betting, and scratch cards.
The channels infringed on the laws of the Dignity Decree, imposed in July 2018. Passed into federal law in 2019 by the former Lega-5Star coalition government, the Dignity Decree imposed a blanket ban on all forms of gambling advertising (legacy and online) and across all Italian sports (professional and amateur).
AGCOM deems that Google and Twitch are responsible for distributing these videos, as they were published by third parties with whom the companies had commercial partnerships.
Following the intervention, the illegal content was removed as Google and Twitch were ordered to prevent future uploads of similar violating content under the Digital Services Act (DSA).
AGCOM revealed that it had further investigated TikTok, but exonerated the social platform due to the “absence of a contractual relationship with the content creators involved in the alleged violations.”
