Italy's constitutional court adds proportionality to gambling ad-ban penalties, lawyer says

Italy's Constitutional Court has added a proportionality mechanism to the sanctions regime for breaches of the Decreto Dignità ban on gambling advertising, lawyer Alfonso Vuolo told Jamma. The case returns to the Lazio regional administrative court (Tar Lazio), which will rule again on the fine at issue, Vuolo said.

The dispute stems from a challenge to a €157,000 fine imposed by the Autorità per le garanzie nelle comunicazioni (AGCOM) over promotional content for online gambling distributed through YouTube and Twitch. Article 9, paragraph 2, of the Decreto Dignità set the penalty at 20% of the value of the advertising or sponsorship, with a minimum of €50,000 for each violation, according to the source.

Vuolo, who represented the applicant before the Constitutional Court and is a professor of constitutional and public law, said the court went beyond the question raised by the Tar Lazio and added a provision allowing the authority to calibrate the penalty according to objective and subjective circumstances. He said he was pleased for his client, who had faced what Vuolo described as a disproportionate penalty because of the rigidity of the statutory minimum.

Vuolo said the advertising ban introduced in 2018 remains unchanged and that the court's intervention concerns only the sanctions. He said he expects the Tar Lazio decision could annul the fine, adding that the judicial dispute remains open.