Dr Ola Wiklund shares his thoughts on the Swedish Competition Agency’s refusal to investigate complaints from operators licensed on the Swedish gambling market. Dr Ola Wiklund maintains that the banks’ reluctance to service the Swedish gambling industry is in breach of both law and public policy: ”I believe that it is a violation of a number of domestic and EU law obligations to launch a fully-fledged retreat from a vast licensing market on the basis of vague concerns pertaining to reputational risk. The policy distorts competition and violates the obligation to contract established in the Deposit Insurance Act (1995:1521) requiring that every client is assessed individually in relation to any exceptions from the obligation to contract. Moreover, it is incoherent to invoke arguments concerning the reputational risk of a whole industry whilst simultaneously upholding several contractual relations with, amongst others, state-owned operators. The policy’s detrimental effect extends beyond the gambling market by jeopardizing other other financial markets that requires similar banking services.
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Read the full article, published on EGR on the 21 of January 2021
