Swedish Trade Association for Online Gambling – BOS welcomes possible prejudicial decision on penalty fees

The Supreme Administrative Court of Sweden last Tuesday made a remarkable statement linked to a decision on a penalty fee against the gambling operator Genesis Global Ltd. The Supreme Administrative Court states, similar to what BOS has claimed for a long time, that penalty fees decided by the Swedish Gambling Authority should be based on Gross Gaming Revenue (GGR), and thus not gross turnover as the SGA has applied so far.

A gambling company’s GGR is usually less than ten percent of its gross turnover.

The decision from The Supreme Administrative Court may have a prejudicial effect, not only for future decisions on penalty fees, but for all penalty fees that have already been imposed since the Swedish re-regulation in 2019. The issue is far from settled, but this may mean significant cost reductions for future but also already decided sanction decisions. The possible prejudicial effect is now under investigation at the SGA.

“This decision is very welcome, albeit belated. That penalty fees should be based on GGR and not gross turnover should have been obvious from the start, since it is only GGR that the gambling company has at its disposal and can therefore use to pay any penalty fees. The rest of the money belongs to the gamblers and not the gambling company”, says Gustaf Hoffstedt.

“We look forward to the SGA’s review of sanction decisions made since the Swedish reregulation. We appeal to the inspectorate not to increase the penalty fee based on GGR tenfold, just to get to the same level as the previous fee based on gross turnover. The Swedish penalty fees have been grotesquely high and now the Supreme Administrative Court is giving Sweden a second chance to settle on a more reasonable level for penalty fees”, concludes Gustaf Hoffstedt.