Agcom opens 30-day consultation on infotainment site advertising rules

Italy's communications regulator Agcom has opened a 30-day public consultation on proposed changes to the guidelines applying the gambling advertising ban set out in the 2018 Dignity Decree, with particular reference to infotainment sites, according to a regulator resolution. Interested parties must send questions or observations within 30 days.

Under the proposed guidelines, infotainment sites seeking exclusion from the advertising ban would have to set up newsroom operations, register with the Roc (the Register of Communication Operators kept by Agcom), appoint a responsible editor and carry out effective and frequent updates, in order to strengthen the informational character of their output.

The proposed revision would no longer permit tools that redirect users to gambling offers or reproduce betting or gaming brands. References to concession numbers, the logo of the Agenzia delle Dogane e Monopoli, or the risk warnings and other elements required for communications about gambling offers would also be barred; the text states that their presence indicates the message can be traced to gambling activity.

The exclusion would not apply, the text says, when an overall assessment of the message, the medium, the context of distribution and the audience reached shows that the communication makes an advertising link to gambling offers. Agcom said it will assess communications in sports settings, carried on billboards or illuminated systems, with particular attention, given the close proximity of such media to gambling offers and the resulting risk that use of a brand, even for separate activities, still makes an advertising link. The same criterion would apply to paid positioning services using keywords linked to gambling, betting or operators in the sector.

Agcom said the intervention was necessary because the sites had progressively taken on a more promotional than informational function, prompting the regulator to begin revising the guidelines.