The Swedish Court of Appeal has dismissed Betway's appeal to further annul or reduce the Swedish Gaming Authority's (SGA) historic fine of SEK 4.7 million for bonus violations.
In May 2019, an online operator was warned and fined SEK 5 million for repeat bonuses to Swedish players, which is illegal under the country's gambling laws.
According to Swedish law, the bonus can only be offered upon initial registration with a licensed operator. Repeat bonuses are prohibited.
Bonuses are defined by the regulator as "a discount or similar financial incentive directly related to a game".
If a licensed operator violates these rules, he is subject to a fine and may even lose his Swedish license.
The SGA initially fined Betway after regulators found the operator was offering recurring deposit bonuses, including weekly free games and recurring free spins.
When initially questioned about these offers, Betway stated that the recurring rewards were in line with the Swedish market operator bonus rules.
Regular bonuses and free spins offers were eventually terminated by the operator to ensure compliance with Swedish regulations.
Betway then filed an appeal against the SGA fine of SEK 5 million, which was partially overturned by judges at the Swedish Administrative Court in Linköping in June 2020.
Upholding the premium warning, the court lowered the fine to SEK 4.7 million after ruling that the company's turnover had been misjudged by the SGA.
In Sweden, the maximum fine for marketing infringement is SEK 5 million, or 10% of the operator's annual turnover.
Further, Betway filed an appeal to reduce the fine as the case was considered in the Court of Appeal of the country, but the appeal was rejected.
"The Court of Appeal shares the assessment that the company's offerings for recurring deposit and free play bonuses meant that the prohibition on more than one bonus in Section 9 of the Gambling Act was violated and that the violation is serious," the SGA said in a statement.
Elsewhere, the SGA confirmed that it would be appealing the Court of Appeal's decisions regarding fines imposed on AG Communications Limited and Genesis Global after the pair successfully challenged the regulator's rulings.
AG Communications and Genesis Global were fined SEK 3 million and SEK 4 million respectively in April 2019 for refusing to connect to the mandatory Spelpaus self-exclusion database.
AG didn't connect for 33 days and Genesis didn't connect for nine days, resulting in a penalty as required by the SGA.
Both firms appealed to the Administrative Court and the fines were reduced to SEK 2m and SEK 1.5m respectively on similar turnover grounds.
"The SGA does not share the Court of Appeal's interpretation of the punitive charge provisions," the regulator said. “The penalties set by the Court of Appeal are too low compared to the severity of the violation and the turnover of the companies.
“In order for the penalties to be dissuasive and proportionate, it is necessary to take into account the turnover of companies when determining the amount of the penalty. Thus, the reasoning of the Court of Appeal is contrary to both the principle of proportionality and equal treatment,” he added.
The cases will now be referred to the Supreme Administrative Court of Sweden.
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