Response to United Kingdom Gambling Commission Enforcement Action on Unfair Terms and Conditions Used by Online Operators
![handle is hein.journals/gmglwr21 and id is 388 raw text is: 388 [2017] 5 GLR: COTTON : INTERNATIONAL GAMING INDUSTRY UPDATE
RESPONSE TO
UNITED KINGDOM
GAMBLING
COMMISS ION
ENFORCEMENT
ACTION ON
UNFAIR TERMS
AND CONDITIONS
USED BY ONLINE
OPERATORS
ANDREW COTTON
Andrew Cotton is a solicitor and director of Betting and
Gaming for Gordon Dadds in London, United Kingdom.
T he chief executive officer (CEO) of the
Gambling Commission, Sarah Harrison,
took up post in October 2015 and within
a matter of months, at International Ca-
sino Exhibition 2016, made clear that
one of the key areas that the Commission would be
addressing would be ensuring that all UK licensed
gambling operators (remote and non-remote) com-
plied with UK consumer protection legislation, and
in particular, with the Consumer Rights Act 2015
(CRA). The Act was implemented on October 1,
2015 and consolidated previous UK legislation in or-
der to comply with a European Union (EU) Directive.
All other EU member states were required to pass sim-
ilarnational legislation to implement the EU Directive.
The Commission implemented a new license condi-
tion in May 2015, which required all Commission li-
censees to ensure that their terms and conditions
were not unfair, as provided by the CRA, in replicat-
ing most previous UK consumer protection legisla-
tion. The license condition reads as follows:
Licence condition 7.1.1
Compliance with terms (consumer rights)
All operating licences except gaming machine
technical and gambling software licences
1. Licensees must satisfy themselves that none of
the terms on which gambling is offered are
unfair terms within the meaning of the Con-
sumer Rights Act 2015 and must comply with
those terms.
2. An accurate summary of the contractual
terms on which gambling is offered must be
made available to customers and set out in
plain and intelligible language.
3. Customers must be notified of material
changes to terms before they come into effect.
In her speech in February 2016 (the full text of which
can found here: http://www.gamblingcommission.
gov.uk/PDF/speeches/World-Regulatory-Briefing-
at-ICE-2016.pdf), Sarah Harrison made this ref-
erence to those obligations:
Linked to marketing, a further focus for the
Commission over the coming year, will be on
ensuring that the terms and conditions on which
gambling is offered to consumers are fair and
open. The Commission has specific require-
ments relating to the fairness and openness of
terms, including that: an accurate and intelligible
summary of terms is made available to cus-
tomers; all licensees satisfy themselves that their
terms are not unfair within the meaning of the
Consumer Rights Act 2015; and operators must
comply with their published terms.
In October 2016, the Competitions and Markets
Authority (CMA), who enforce consumer rights in
the UK, launched an investigation into the fairness
of terms and conditions offered by online gambling
operators. The press statement issued by the CMA
can be found at this link: https://www.gov.uk/
government/news/cma-launches-investigation-into-
online-gambling.
DOI: 10.1089/glr2.2017.2158 © 2017 Mary Ann Liebert, Inc.](ViewImageLocal?handle=hein.journals/gmglwr21&div=51&collection=&method=preview&ext=.png&size=3)
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Response to United Kingdom Gambling Commission Enforcement Action on Unfair Terms and Conditions Used by Online Operators
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