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Italian Authority Takes Google to Task
By Shane Addinall Aug 10, 2022 IndustryItalian authorities discovered a surprising number of illegal advertisements on a YouTube site available to its citizens. The advertising regulator sanctioned all parties involved, including Google itself.The Italian advertising authority, Autorità per le Garanzie nelle Comunicazioni (AGCOM), served Google with a €750,000 penalty for YouTube ads released by a verified partner. Since Italy’s prohibition on all gambling-related ads, the authority has its hands full with companies crossing the line. AGCOM explained that Google’s responsibility as YouTube’s parent company includes the moderation of media released on the video-sharing platform.
Along with the sanctions on the Alphabet subsidiary, AGCOM fined the content creator €700,000 and instructed all parties to ensure the removal of all illegal content, including the site that streamed the content.
Google Must Pay Up and Remove Content
Media reports cite the Italian authority, AGCOM, sanctioned Google last week following the discovery of 625 illegal pieces of content on its video-sharing platform, YouTube. According to the communications authority, the advertising agency is a partner of Google and the content on its spikeslot.com site contravened Italy’s blanket ban on gambling ads.
In violation of the Mediterranean country’s advertising laws, Google and Top Ads Ltd received fines amassing over €1,4 million. AGCOM explains that Google and Top Ads Ltd violated the country’s dignity decree, justifying the fines.
Reports explain that although Google did not release the content, AGCOM argues that the Alphabet tech giant did not take the necessary steps to protect viewers in Italy, nor did it prevent the content creator from posting illicit content. AGCOM reports that an existing agreement between Google and Top Ads lists the Spikeslot website as a verified partner. Therefore, the authority points to the internet giant’s responsibility in disseminating the banned content.
The guilty parties received a 7-day window to shut down all illegal gambling videos on the spikeslot.com site and obliterate the site.
Italy’s War Against Illegal Marketing
This was not the first time Google was part of an illegal advertising saga. In October 2020, AGCOM fined the company €100,000 due to illicit content. At the time, the Regional Administrative Court for Lazio disagreed with the authority and overturned the ruling. The court sided with Google in its defence that the company did not know of the illegal advertisement and therefore could not control it. Google argued that the content creators circumvented its security checks.
Although this is a recent case with many videos, it is far from an isolated issue in Italy. The country’s dignity decree from 2019 bans all gambling advertisements on all media. AGCOM’s president, Carlo Rienzi, explains that since then, multiple websites, apps, and social media platforms have continuously pushed the limits and broken the advertising laws of the country.
Italy’s parliament enforced drastic measures to protect the younger demographic most at risk of gambling harm, as they are most exposed to these media sources. A report from the Italian Customs and Monopoly Agency in 2017 revealed that gamblers in the region wagered €101.8 billion that year alone. Alarmed by the stupendous sum, authorities deduced Italian gambling needed to slow down.
Codacons, a consumer rights defence association in the region, called for an intense crackdown on illegal advertising, following the discovery of the YouTube site.
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