Dutch gambling trade association VNLOK has summoned Meta before an Amsterdam court, asking a judge to rule that the platform breaches its obligations under the EU’s Digital Services Act over unlawful Meta gambling ads reaching Dutch consumers.
VNLOK summoned Meta before the Amsterdam court on Monday 28 September, seeking stronger measures to prevent illegal gambling adverts reaching consumers on Facebook and Instagram.
The filing matters commercially because it tests how far a major platform must go to police unlicensed advertisers, with direct consequences for licensed operators and the affiliates who buy traffic alongside them.
What happened
The Hague-based VNLOK, representing the country’s licensed online gambling operators, has filed the lawsuit following months of warnings and investigations into Meta.
VNLOK first initiated legal proceedings against Meta in June, claiming the company had failed to prevent the widespread display of illegal online gambling advertisements targeting Dutch users on Facebook and Instagram.
It also raised the matter with Brussels:
the association lodged a formal complaint with the European Commission.
The association’s figures are central to the case.
VNLOK says more than 90% of the Facebook gambling adverts it examined came from illegal sites.
It argues Meta’s response has been inadequate:
VNLOK reported that Meta removed 11% of the adverts in May and 15% in June.
Crucially,
that is the association’s finding, not a court determination or a measure of every gambling advert on Meta’s platforms.
VNLOK has been careful to frame the target of the action.
The association is asking the court to determine that Meta is not complying with its obligations under the EU Digital Services Act, and it has stressed the lawsuit is not directed against social media as such, but against the facilitation of illegal offerings.
Illicit operators are described as using sophisticated evasion tactics:
cloaking, redirecting users to external platforms like Telegram, misusing established Dutch gambling brand names, and in some cases showing error messages to regulators while directing ordinary users to illicit gambling apps.
The timing is pointed.
On Tuesday 29 September, Dutch MPs were also due to vote on giving the gambling regulator clearer powers to fine platforms over illegal ads.
Separately,
the Kansspelautoriteit reported filing thousands of complaints about illegal gambling ads with Meta each month in 2025.
Why it matters
The case puts a familiar tension in the open.
Licensed operators face market rules and advertising restrictions, while unlicensed competitors may still seek access to the same audiences through social platforms.
For affiliates and performance-marketing partners working legitimate Dutch traffic, that asymmetry has a direct commercial cost: paid social inventory used by unlicensed brands can undercut compliant operators on cost-per-acquisition while exposing consumers to unregulated products.
A ruling against Meta would push the DSA’s “effective safeguards” standard closer to a concrete obligation rather than a vague best-effort duty.
The legislation requires major online platforms to take proactive steps against illegal content, and under the rules companies are expected to have effective safeguards in place to prevent illegal gambling advertisements from being shown to Dutch users.
If VNLOK succeeds, platforms operating across the EU would face pressure to tighten ad-verification systems well beyond the Netherlands, changing how any operator or affiliate network plans paid-social budgets in regulated markets.
The bigger picture
VNLOK is not negotiating from a weak position.
Meta has already been on the losing side of a Dutch DSA case: in October 2025, in a separate dispute brought by digital rights group Bits of Freedom, the Amsterdam district court found that Facebook and Instagram had breached the act.
The court of appeal in that matter set a compliance deadline backed by penalties of up to 100,000 euros a day from January 2026, which VNLOK reads as evidence a Dutch court can force Meta to change its practices.
The dispute also sits alongside a broader pattern of trade bodies and regulators pressing platforms over gambling promotion, a theme this site has tracked in the context of deepfake gambling adverts targeting Alberta’s regulated market. Whether the pressure point is AI-generated creative or unlicensed paid social reach, the underlying commercial question is the same: who bears responsibility when a platform’s ad systems let unlicensed gambling brands compete for the same players as regulated operators.
Sources
- CasinoBeats – VNLOK takes Meta to court over illegal gambling adverts
- iGaming Business – VNLOK summons Meta to court in latest action against illegal gambling ads in Netherlands
- iGaming Express – Meta Sued Over Illegal Gambling Ads in Netherlands
- iGaming Expert – Pressure mounts on Meta as VNLOK summons them to court
- European Gaming – VNLOK vs Meta: A test of who polices illegal gambling ads
- Gambling News – Dutch Gambling Association Takes Meta to Court over Illegal Gambling Advertising
- GamesHub – Illegal Gambling Ads: Meta Court Challenge in Netherlands
- FocusGN – Legal action against Meta advances over illegal gambling adverts in the Netherlands
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