Eurosport’s complaint did not succeed.
Eurosport has also been seen in Finland for decades. Zumawire / mvphotos
The TV channel Eurosport received as much as € 800,000 a penalty payment from the Police Board in the autumn of 2021. The reason was the Finnish gambling ads at Eurosport.
Marketing of foreign online casinos and betting companies is prohibited in mainland Finland.
Eurosport SAS appealed to the Helsinki Administrative Court. The channel required the annulment of the decision or at least a reduction of the penalty payment to EUR 30,000.
The reason for the complaint was that Eurosport’s opinion that the Police Board had not defined the scope of the prohibition sufficiently accurately. As a result of the decision, it remained unclear whether in Finland, for example, a soft drink advertising can be shown in Finland, which shows the background of the betting company in the athlete’s jersey.
The Administrative Court’s statement was cold: you may not be advertised for gambling.
The penalty payment will be paid if the channel still violates the lottery law.
The decision of the Police Board said that Eurosport had advertised numerous foreign online casinos and betting companies.
The Administrative Court did not consider the € 800,000 penalty payment unreasonable. The French Eurosport Sas forged a turnover of more than EUR 490 million in 2019. The line was EUR 54.4 million.
Eurosport is owned by Warner Bros. Discovery.