Jdigital has been dealt a significant blow after the Tribunal for Spain’s Supreme Court ruled last week that the Royal Decree on Advertising cannot be suspended.
Spain’s online gambling trade association had been pursuing the removal or suspension of the federal ban on gambling advertising across the country’s 17 autonomous communities, since its enforcement in November 2021.
The ban has forced Spanish companies to obey a 1am-5am window for the broadcasting of gambling adverts, while the Ministry of Consumer Affairs also imposed a blanket ban on gambling sponsorships across all sports, except for those promoting state-owned lottery partnerships.
Alongside its Spanish media trade body counterpart AMI, Jdigital argued that a number of Decree restrictions had infringed upon “Article 53 of the Spanish Constitution regarding the guarantees of fundamental rights and freedoms”.
Beyond constitutional boundaries, Jdigital and AMI had appealed against the Decree, outlining that it was an ‘ineffective solution’ imposed federally on autonomous communities.
However, an appeal to suspend the Royal Decree until the Ministry of Consumer Affairs had gained constitutional rights to apply its laws federally has now been rejected, with a Tribunal for Spain’s Supreme Court declaring that the Ministry of Consumer Affairs had secured substantial autonomous rights to enforce the Decree.
The Tribunal cited that Jdigital’s demand for a suspension was considered an ‘incorrect approach, in which the trade body should have treated its appeal as a “broader challenge of the Royal Decree”.
It recognised that the Royal Decree requires its Constitutional Review, which must be granted by Spain’s Constitutional Court.
“In this way, the RD will continue to be applied while we continue to await the ruling of the Constitutional Court on the question of its unconstitutionality.”
