Leon is a Presidential Assistant Professor at the School of Creative Media of the City University of Hong Kong. He researches video game and gambling law, particularly the regulation of loot boxes, gacha, and other gambling-like monetisation mechanics in video games that offer random rewards. He is trained in English law and has been Called to the Bar of England and Wales. He uses empirical legal research methods to assess whether companies are complying with various behavioural addiction-related regulatory rules in different countries through fieldwork, and he advises policymakers on how to improve compliance and implement more effective video game and gambling regulation. He is passionate about open science and conducts registered reports when suitable. His award-winning research has received worldwide coverage in over 820 media features by the BBC, The Guardian, etc. His regulatory complaints against companies based on his research results have established key UK advertising and EU consumer law precedents.

Abstract

Scrutinising social media advertising of behaviourally addictive products using ad repositories enabled by the EU Digital Services Act: A multi-jurisdictional perspective on gambling and video game loot boxes

Stakeholders are concerned about the harms of wide-reaching advertising of behaviourally addictive products, including to young people. Various regulations have been adopted to limit gambling and video game loot box ads. Dutch law prohibits gambling advertising to target anyone under 24. In many countries (e.g. the UK), any advertising for games with loot boxes must disclose their presence. The recent EU Digital Services Act requires social media platforms (e.g. Facebook) to publish a repository of all advertising, including audience demographic details, providing an objective data source. We used Meta’s ad repository to assess compliance with behavioural addiction-related regulatory policies across multiple jurisdictions through content analysis of thousands of ads promoting popular products. Dutch law was generally followed, although breaches were found. In contrast, in the UK and South Korea, less than 10% of ads disclosed loot box presence, and many disclosures were not sufficiently visually prominent. A licensing regime and better enforced regulation leads to better compliance. Social media advertising repositories allow public health issues to be researched in a novelly objective way. Policymakers should legally require more data access opportunities. This method is also applicable to certain substance-based addictive products like alcohol whose advertising is sometimes permissible.