Swedish Competition Authority stands down – licenseholders are left in limbo

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Ola Wiklund shares his thoughts on the refusal of the Swedish Competition Agency to investigate complaints from operators licensed on the Swedish gambling market

Dr Ola Wiklund still maintains that the banks reluctance to serve the industry in Sweden violates 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 reputational risk concerns. The measure distorts competition and violates the obligation to contract laid out in the Deposit Insurance Act (1995:1521) that requires that every client is individually assessed in relation to any exceptions from the obligation to contract. Moreover, it is incoherent to invoke reputational risk of a whole industry while still upholding several contractual relation with, amongst others. the state-owned operators. The policy also jeopardizes a number of other financial markets that requires these banking services.”

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Read the full article, published on EGR on the 21 of January 2021

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