VNLOK summons Meta to Amsterdam court over illegal gambling ads

Dutch trade body VNLOK has summoned Meta to the Amsterdam court over illegal gambling advertisements on Facebook and Instagram, asking the court to rule that Meta is not complying with its obligations under the EU Digital Services Act (DSA) and to order the company to take measures to better prevent illegal gambling ads aimed at the Netherlands. The summons is the latest step in a legal procedure VNLOK announced in June 2026.

According to VNLOK, its own research has repeatedly shown that more than 90% of the gambling advertisements it examined on Facebook came from illegal gambling sites. The trade body says Meta removed 11% of illegal advertisements in May and 15% in June. It says illegal advertisements often stay online only briefly: in May an advertisement was online for an average of 1.58 days and 76% were visible for less than a day, while in June the average duration was two days and 65% of advertisements were online for less than a day. VNLOK argues that removal after the fact therefore often comes too late, and it wants Meta to act more proactively and efficiently against illegal advertisements before they are placed.

VNLOK chair Björn Fuchs said the trade body had repeatedly pointed out the scale of the problem to Meta and asked it to work structurally on a solution, with insufficient result. "Wij hebben Meta herhaaldelijk gewezen op de omvang van het probleem en gevraagd om structureel mee te werken aan een oplossing. Dat heeft onvoldoende resultaat opgeleverd. Daarom leggen we de zaak nu aan de Nederlandse rechter voor." VNLOK said the case is not directed at social media as such but at the enabling of illegal gambling offerings, and it named search results, misleading redirects and Telegram channels alongside advertisements as routes used by illegal providers.

Fuchs said the Netherlands has chosen a regulated online gambling market with rules on consumer protection, addiction prevention and supervision, and that it is not logical for illegal providers to reach Dutch consumers at scale through large digital platforms. He said politics, the regulator and platforms each have a role, and that VNLOK is no longer waiting and is putting Meta's responsibility before the court while expecting the regulator and other platforms to take their responsibility too.

The summons comes as the Tweede Kamer is due to vote on Tuesday on a motion from Bikkers c.s., submitted during the two-minute debate on gambling, that would give the Kansspelautoriteit more powers to act against platforms such as Meta. The motion asks that it be laid down in law that online platforms are themselves in breach when illegal gambling advertisements remain visible after repeated notifications, and that the Kansspelautoriteit in those cases be given the power to impose a fine or an order subject to a penalty payment. VNLOK said it is positive about the motion but called on the Kansspelautoriteit not to wait for new legislation, saying existing legal possibilities already allow it to address parties that facilitate illegal online gambling more firmly.

Fuchs said the Kansspelautoriteit already makes many notifications to platforms, but that the number of illegal advertisements appearing despite them means a next step is due, and that the regulator already has the legal possibilities to address parties involved in reaching Dutch consumers with illegal offerings without a change in the law. He said Meta is the party VNLOK is now taking legal action against but that the problem is broader, since a provider removed from one platform reappears through another channel.

In April 2025 VNLOK called on Meta and Google to enforce their advertising rules for gambling more strictly, following reports to Meld Vals Spel about illegal gambling advertisements in which illegal providers presented themselves as legitimate providers and used logos and brand names of legal online casinos and banks. In June 2026 VNLOK announced it intended to take legal steps against Meta and also said it would file a notification with the European Commission about Meta's compliance with the DSA. The announced legal steps led in July to parliamentary questions from BBB MP Henk Vermeer about advertisements for illegal online gambling sites on social media platforms; state secretary Claudia van Bruggen answered them in August, writing that the approach in which the Kansspelautoriteit reports illegal advertisements to platforms afterwards and has them removed is, in her view, insufficiently scalable and sustainable given the large number of advertisements and their short duration.