Lotteritilsynet Pauses Daily Fines for Kindred

Norway's gaming regulator Lotteritilsynet announced that they'll be halting their daily fine of operator Kindred Group after the company said that their Trannel subsidiary wouldn't target Norwegian customers anymore.

The news comes after Lotteritilsynet had threatened to fine the company NOK1.198 million per day that they were active in the country. The fight came as Kindred said it believed Norway's gambling rules are in violation of EU law and had vowed to press the case in court. After losing multiple cases, the company was still active in Norway, forcing the regulator to issue the threat.

Those fines are now on hold as Kindred said that their brand won't be actively targeting Norwegian citizens. Lotteritilsynet wants the country to stop offering Norwegian language support and stop using Norwegian web domains to host their sites. Advertising abatement will also be a requirement to avoid the fines.

Kindred has indicated that they're going to passively accept Norwegian customers, and has continued to call on the country to introduce a licensing system that is "non-discriminatory".

Regarding the change of plan Lotteritilsynet director Henrik Nordal said, "We have decided to pause the compulsory fine of NOK1.2m per day as Trannel, which is behind Unibet and Mariacasino, states that they will comply with Norwegian law. The penalty can still be quickly activated if they do not meet the conditions we have given in the decision.

"We will check carefully how Trannel complies with the conditions we have set for the postponement and will start the compulsory fine if we uncover a breach of these."

A statement from Kindred regarding the issue said in part, "Kindred has over the years filed several applications for local licenses in Norway. Kindred would be ready to, similar to Sweden and Denmark, work within a Norwegian licensing system compliant with EU/EEA law.

"Kindred believes that licenses must be awarded in a transparent and non-discriminatory manner."

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