Home » Technology » Facua denounces to Consumption covert advertising of bets in Instagram accounts of ‘influencers’

Facua denounces to Consumption covert advertising of bets in Instagram accounts of ‘influencers’

MADRID, 8 (EUROPA PRESS)

FACUA-Consumidores en Acción has filed a complaint with the Directorate General for the Regulation of Gambling (DGOJ), under the Ministry of Consumer Affairs, for the alleged covert advertising of a Telegram channel dedicated to sports betting, carried out through Instagram “by a series of characters with public notoriety and humorous accounts with hundreds of thousands of followers “.

As reported by the consumer organization, “the events have gained a great impact” after being published this weekend by a Twitter user, through a thread on the social network, which has gone viral with about 20,000 retweets .

Given this circumstance, Facua has announced that it has brought the case to the attention of the competent body in matters of gambling control to open an investigation and initiate the corresponding sanctioning file.

The entity argues that, according to article 23 of Royal Decree 958/2020, of November 3, on commercial communications of gaming activities, “the dissemination of commercial communications from gaming operators in services of the company is prohibited. information”.

At this point, Facua points out that “the only exceptions are the websites or applications of the gaming operators themselves or those whose main activity is to launch this type of offers or report sporting events as long as they can prevent access by minors”.

In addition, the organization has added that article 15 of the aforementioned Royal Decree on advertising online gambling prohibits “the appearance in commercial communications of people or characters of relevance or public notoriety, be they real or fictional.”

However, regardless of the prohibition of advertising betting houses by people with public notoriety established in the aforementioned Royal Decree, Facua has recalled that Law 3/1991, of January 10, on Unfair Competition, prohibits “practices covert commercials “.

In its article 26, as detailed, it establishes that “it is considered unfair by misleading to include as information in the media, communications to promote a good or service, paying the employer or professional for said promotion, without it being clearly specified in the content or through images and sounds clearly identifiable to the consumer or user that it is an advertising content “.

For their part, sources from the Ministry of Consumption have confirmed to Europa Press that the department headed by Alberto Garzón is investigating whether any gambling operator is behind this issue.

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