Russian Anti-Monopoly Watchdog Monitoring YouTube
By Brian Cullingworth, Last updated May 11, 2018
Online casino content the subject of Russian video trade body complaint
Russian media reports indicate that the federal Anti-Monopoly Service is investigating a complaint from the Internet Video Association that YouTube is “repeatedly” violating Russian advertising laws by permitting the promotion of unlicensed online casino sites in the Russian language.
The Association, which represents intellectual property rights owners, has asked the watchdog to prosecute YouTube and/or owner group Google in order to curtail what it considers to be illegal conduct.
This is not the first time that the anti-monopoly service has been engaged to discourage the promotion of unauthorised Russian online casino sites; earlier this year the service instituted legal action against Google for failing to remove promotional material for an online casino group on its search facility.
In the broader sense, online casino promotion in Russia is likely to become more problematic this month when new federal laws come into force.
These require financial institutions to halt transactions with any online gambling sites not in possession of a Russian online sports betting licence, imposing tough punitive measures against such financial companies if they do not monitor the Roskomnadzor black list (see previous InfoPowa reports) and block transactions with individuals or operators on it.