Swedish Consumer Agency begins landmark advertising case against Ninja Casino
Advertising watchdog aims to secure legal precedent around what constitutes “moderate” marketing
The Swedish Consumer Agency (KO) has begun its legal challenge against Global Gaming subsidiary Elec Games over the marketing of the Ninja Casino brand in Sweden.
The case, which kicked off yesterday, centres around advertising of the Ninja Casino brand in the run up to the Swedish regulated market going live in January.
Advertisements on Stockholm’s public transport system, which used slogans including ‘The profits in your account before the next station’, drew several complaints to KO from Swedish citizens.
In its lawsuit, filed at the Swedish Patents and Markets court in Stockholm, KO also highlighted other slogans including “clean road to gold”, “the profit in the bank within five minutes”, “you can take home the millions” and “PLAY NOW!”.
KO said advertising of this sort did not meet current Swedish gambling laws which require operators to exercise moderation in their marketing practices.
The lawsuit asks the court to make an overall assessment of the company’s marketing practices and how this relates to the legal principle of moderation.
A spokesperson for KO said it hopes the case will “set an important legal precedent” in Sweden concerning the practice of the moderation requirement.
“We will continuously review and assess the marketing practise in this area and we will take other and similar cases if necessary,” KO added.
Elec Games parent company Global Gaming said they were unable to comment when approached by EGR due to the ongoing nature of the case.
The hearing is expected to end this afternoon, with a verdict being delivered by the Patents and Markets Court within the next three weeks.
The Ninja Casino brand had effectively been defunct in Sweden since June, when Global Gaming’s licence to operate in Sweden was terminated by the Swedish Gambling Authority.
However, in September Global Gaming confirmed it would look to transfer the Ninja Casino domain and brand to fellow operator Finnplay, as part of its commercial partnership with the Finnish firm.
The company is currently pursuing its own legal challenge into the decision to revoke its Swedish licence.
KO is also pursuing a similar case against Swedish licensed operator Aspire Global over its own advertising practices on the Karamba brand. Earlier this month, Aspire Global said it “will not accept” attempts by KO to set a new precedent in Swedish marketing law with the case.