Chilean senators propose court powers to extend gambling-site blocks
Regulation2 min read
Senators Esteban Velásquez and Alejandra Sepúlveda introduced a bill in Chile to strengthen enforcement of court-ordered website blocks, according to the senators’ proposal. It would allow courts to extend blocks to new domains and mirror sites linked to the same services, subject to evidence and a reasoned decision; the bill remains under consideration.
Chilean senators Esteban Velásquez and Alejandra Sepúlveda have introduced a bill that would allow courts to extend website blocks to new domains and mirror sites used to evade them. The proposal arose from difficulties blocking betting platforms, but would apply more widely to website-blocking orders. Senate records show the bill, Bulletin 18.699-07, was introduced on 30 September and remains under consideration.
Three articles would be added to the Code of Civil Procedure under the bill. The first article would require court orders to identify the domains, subdomains or addresses subject to a block, as well as the companies responsible for implementing it and a deadline. Internet providers would then report the block’s start time, the addresses covered and the technical methods used.
Orders could be broadened to cover further domains, mirrors or redirection tools that lead to the same platforms, subject to evidence connecting the new addresses to the original services and a reasoned court decision. Measures would need to be proportionate and technically suitable, without extending beyond the services named in the ruling. A person whose legal services were mistakenly affected could seek a review, modification or lifting of the block.
Courts could seek information from providers suspected of non-compliance and impose coercive measures under existing law if they refused to carry out blocks without justification or supplied false information. Providers would have to prove any technical difficulties they cited, but a properly demonstrated technical impossibility would not alone be grounds for criminal liability.
A third provision addresses people expressly bound by an order who deliberately create domains or mirror sites to evade a block after being notified of it. Courts could order those actions reversed, extend blocks and impose coercive measures without excluding criminal liability.
Chile's telecommunications regulator Subtel directed providers to block 42 addresses on 1 September, followed by 37 domains, subdomains and mirror sites on 21 September, according to the motion. Once the first deadline had elapsed, Independent Democratic Union lawmakers urged the Financial Market Commission (CMF) to direct banks to stop transfers to betting sites.
The measure is distinct from the main legislation on online betting regulation now before the Senate. The government submitted amendments to the main bill to the Senate Economy Committee in October. The changes include stricter blocks on unlicensed sites and a requirement to refuse transactions with platforms listed by a regulator. The payment rules would cover entities deemed by the CMF to have effective blocking capacity.