The Court of Appeal of Paris recently ruled that Meta, the technology giant, must take active measures to block illegal gambling advertisements on Facebook, Instagram and Messenge platforms.
The case was brought by Groupe Lucien Barrière, a French major hotel and entertainment operator, and charged Meta with the use of the false Barrière trademark to promote unlicensed operator applications with thousands of unauthorized illegal advertisements on the platform. The Barrière Group stated that these advertisements violated not only its trademark rights but also French legal provisions prohibiting online casino advertising. The Paris Court of Appeal upheld his claim, dismissed Meta ‘ s appeal and upheld its earlier order that the company filter and block such content. The judgement was rendered on 28 January 2026, after months of legal confrontation between the parties. In late 2023, the Barrière Group discovered that its brand had been used for online advertising on the Meta platform to promote banned lottery applications in France. After recording the scale of the problem, the Barrière Group sent an official notice to Meta requesting the deletion of the advertisement and the disclosure of the identity of the advertiser, which was rejected.
The preliminary decision of January 2024 required Meta to filter gambling advertisements and to preserve the main advertiser’s data. Meta filed an appeal, stating that it had no universal content control obligation, which was rejected by the court. The Court recognized that such propaganda constituted “manifest illegal activities” prohibited by French law, and that the fraudulent effects of advertising were exacerbated by the misuse of trademarks. At the same time, it was pointed out that the repeated occurrence of such advertisements ruled out the possibility of being isolated or accidental and that, given the large number of advertisements and the urgency of the situation, immediate intervention was necessary. The evidence shows that more than 2,400 advertisements were published by hundreds of accounts, some of which even mimic Barryère designs to mislead users. The latest decision required Meta to use its automated system to proactively identify and block the use of the Barrière trademark or the unauthorized promotion of gambling advertising for casino-like games. The measures are to be implemented over a period of one year to ensure that all advertisements using the name or image of Barrière are effectively shielded from the Meta platforms. According to previous Reuters reports, approximately $16 billion of Meta’s revenues came from fraudulent and contraband-related advertising, including online unlicensed casinos and fraudulent investment schemes. In fact, this is not the first time that Meta has been criticized for illegal gambling. The Executive Director of the British Lottery Commission (UKGC), Tim Miller, warned at the previous ICE exhibition in Barcelona that illegal lottery advertising was widespread on the platform of Meta.
In late January 2026, the Dutch trade organization VNLOK stated that its review of the Meta Advertisement Library showed that more than 95 per cent of the gambling advertisements directed at Dutch users came from unlicensed operators, which undermined the regulated market in the country. The proliferation of illegal advertising in Meta is not limited to Europe. In Malaysia, regulators disagree with Meta on the new regulation, which aims to curb fraud and gambling advertising. The Minister of Communications, Fahmi Fadzil, revealed that of the 168,000 requests to Facebook, about 120,000 designed gambling content, while Facebook responded rather slowly. The Brazilian Federal Attorney General ‘ s Office also issued an official circular in August 2025 requiring Meta to remove unauthorized lottery promotions, in accordance with the country ‘ s new lottery legislation.
