Swedish Supreme Court to Rule on Svenska Spel-BOS Dispute

Sweden’s Supreme Court will hear a case on whether lottery operator Svenska Spel must hand over details of its commercial agreement with television channel TV4.

The case stems from a dispute that concerns Svenska Spel scratchcard Trisslot, which appears on the TV4 talk show Nyhetsmorgon, where a guest scratches a Trisslot card every day in a feature known as Trisskrapet.

Online gambling operator association BOS has argued that this feature acted as a gambling advertisement, yet did not abide by the rules expected for these ads, such as mandatory consumer protection information.

BOS first submitted a complaint about TV4 and Svenska Spel to the Swedish Consumer Agency in 2019.

In order to determine the nature of the relationship between TV4 and Svenska Spel, the Agency then asked the Patent and Market Court to order Svenska Spel to provide details of its commercial deal with TV4.

While this court agreed that Svenska Spel should hand over the information, the operator appealed to a higher court, which said it should not do so.

However, BOS appealed that decision to the Supreme Court. This appeal has now been accepted.

“In other words, the Supreme Court will assess whether Svenska Spel is obliged to submit the commercial agreement between them and TV4 to the Swedish Consumer Agency. Only then can the actual question – whether Trisskrapet constitutes editorial material (as Svenska Spel and TV4 consider) or advertising (which the Swedish Consumer Agency and BOS consider) be decided,” BOS said.