UKGC urges registration and protection against copyright laws

Added: December 1, 2020

The UK Gambling Commission (UKGC) is recommending licensed operators to start the registration of their subsidiaries with the City of London Police’s ‘Infringing Website List’ (IWL), an online portal operated by London Police’s ‘Intellectual Property Crime Unit’ (PIPCU), in order to safeguard the UK’s digital laws on intellectual property rights and copyright infringement. The IWL preserves an up-to-date list of websites currently infringing copyright laws, which helps advertisers and marketing agencies in ‘determining which sites should not be advertised on’.

Licensed operators are supposed to take full responsibility in certifying that third-party advertisers (such as affiliates, agencies and ad-networks) are adhering to UK digital laws on IP protection, ensuring that campaigns are not being displayed on unauthorized websites that breach copyright-protected content. Licensed operators are expected to have the fitting campaign terms to terminate a third party’s ‘contract promptly’, which can be carried out in the case which the licensee holds a ‘reasonable opinion’ that the campaign is breaching copyright infringement.

Regime advocates have stated that a new affiliate advertising code is mandatory in order to safeguard marketing practices and standards. Despite it all, affiliates have voiced their concerns as to whether a mandatory regime would weaken their legal status in relation to dispute resolutions on campaign and advertising contracts prefer operators or larger affiliate networks.

As of late, industry debate has been divided over whether the UK online gambling sector should carry on in the establishment of a ‘statutory regime’ on affiliate and third-party licensing for gambling advertisers. The mandate has received support from the ‘Responsible Affiliates in Gambling’ (RAiG) trade body, which was only formed recently.