On September 28, the Dutch licensed operator association VNLOK filed a summons with the Amsterdam court, and the defendant is Meta. The reason is written in the complaint: on Facebook and Instagram, a large number of unlicensed iGaming ads continue to target Dutch users, and the platform has not fulfilled the obligations imposed on very large platforms by the EU Digital Services Act.
VNLOK conducted its own sampling. In May of this year, 96.5% of gaming ads on Facebook came from unlicensed operators, and in June it was 93.7%. The takedown data is even more striking: of the flagged unlicensed ads, only 11% were handled in May, and 15% in June.
The short lifespan of the ads is also a problem. Unlicensed ads stay online for an average of 1.58 days, and most disappear on their own in less than a day. By the time the platform finishes handling reports, the ads have already run their course. The association's demand is just one: don't wait until ads go live to delete them, block them before they are placed.
This is not a new story. The association counted last year: 61,717 gaming ads in October, 84,493 in November, and 67,732 in December, with more than ninety-five percent from unlicensed parties. In November alone, peak monthly impressions reached 50 million, and the takedown rate for that quarter was between 3% and 5.2%.
Chairman Fuchs said several rounds of talks with Meta did not produce a structural solution. In the same week, the Dutch House of Representatives voted on a motion: if platforms still run unlicensed ads after multiple takedown requests, they are considered in violation themselves, and regulators can directly impose fines. The association also filed a complaint with the European Commission.
For teams building platform solutions, this matter has two layers. One is customer acquisition: since July 2023 in the Netherlands, ads for licensed brands have been subject to age targeting and channel restrictions, while unlicensed ones can run freely in the same placements, which means the traffic costs of compliant players have been pushed up. The other is operations: white-label platforms rely on ad placement to scale, and tightening review standards for ad channels is the general direction, so creatives, landing pages, and ad accounts all need backup plans.
When selecting a solution, it is worth asking one more question: in the platform's platform solution, to what extent are creative pre-review, regional targeting configuration, and multi-channel placement support implemented? When channel policy changes, these details determine whether a brand gets stuck halfway.