Audit Your Promotions: Avoiding ‘Misleading and Aggressive’ Claims After the Activision Probe

Hook: Why your marketing team should care right now

If you run promotions for online casinos, pokies, or in-app purchases, regulators are watching more closely than ever. Operators face two overlapping pain points: customers complain about unclear offers and regulators — exemplified by Italy’s AGCM probe into Activision Blizzard in January 2026 — are treating ambiguous, time‑pressured or bundled promotions as potentially “misleading and aggressive.” The result? Fines, enforced changes to creative, and reputational risk that hits player trust and conversion rates at the same time.

The landscape in 2026: heightened scrutiny and new expectations

Late 2025 and early 2026 accelerated a global trend: regulators and consumer protection agencies moved from guidance to enforcement. Authorities are no longer satisfied with vague disclaimers buried in long terms and conditions. Instead, the focus is on design elements that nudge players into purchases (countdown timers, fear-of-missing-out messaging), opaque virtual currency pricing, and bundled offers that obscure real costs.

Italy’s Autorità Garante della Concorrenza e del Mercato (AGCM) made this tangible when it opened two investigations into popular mobile titles for allegedly using “misleading and aggressive” sales techniques. That action sent a clear signal to the iGaming sector: the same principles apply to casinos, sportsbooks and pokies promos — especially where minors could be affected or the offer overstates value.

AGCM’s key concerns (paraphrased)

"These practices... may influence players as consumers — including minors — leading them to spend significant amounts, sometimes exceeding what is necessary to progress... without being fully aware of the expenditure involved." — AGCM (Jan 2026)

How operators win: audit promotions for clarity, non‑predation and compliance

The quickest way to reduce regulatory and reputational risk is a structured promotion audit. Below is an actionable audit checklist you can use today to evaluate existing and planned promotions. It’s built from regulatory trends in 2025–2026, advertising law best practices, and practical experience auditing dozens of campaign flows across iGaming.

High‑level audit goals

• Ensure transparency — customers immediately understand cost, value and conditions.
• Eliminate dark patterns — remove or re‑design elements that coerce or mislead.
• Protect vulnerable players — age gating, spend limits and clear warnings where needed.
• Document compliance decisions — maintain an audit trail for regulators and legal teams.

Comprehensive promotions audit checklist (operational)

Use this step‑by‑step checklist during creative reviews, A/B testing approvals, and campaign sign-off meetings. For each item mark: Pass / Fail / Needs Fix + owner + deadline.

1. Offer clarity and headline truthfulness

   • Does the promotion headline accurately reflect the main benefit? (e.g., "100 free spins" must indicate whether wagering applies)
   • Is the total cost to the consumer — including any deposits or currency conversions — clearly visible before conversion? If a virtual currency is used, show the local currency equivalent.
   • Are minimum requirements displayed prominently (wagering, min. deposit, max withdrawal from bonus)?

2. Transparent pricing of virtual currency and bundles

   • When selling coin packs or bundles, state price per unit and the effective price if split (e.g., $1 = 100 coins → 1000 coins = $10).
   • For time‑limited bundles, clarify what happens to unused virtual currency after expiration.
   • Avoid bundling that masks the final price ("Bundle A + Bonus" where the bonus is conditional and unclear).

3. Remove or rework dark patterns

   • Replace aggressive countdown timers that pressure purchase with neutral timers that indicate genuine stock/availability only.
   • Remove misleading progress bars or “limited‑quantity” claims unless verifiable data exists to support them.
   • Disallow pre‑ticked consent boxes or forced micro‑transactions as default options.

4. Targeting and audience safeguards

   • Ensure promotions are not targeted to minors via ad platforms or in‑app placements — age targeting verification required.
   • Block high‑risk segments from seeing high‑pressure promotions: self‑exclusion lists, time‑limited VIP pushes, or loss‑chasing messages.
   • Review lookalike audiences to prevent inadvertent targeting of vulnerable groups.

5. Clear terms and immediate disclosure

   • Place the core T&Cs adjacent to the CTA — not buried in a footer. Use bullets for key limits (wagering, max cashout, eligible games).
   • Require a single‑screen summary (modal) for complex promos before checkout with an "I understand" checkbox.
   • Use simple language, avoid legalese. Include examples (e.g., "If you claim 100 spins, at 0.10 credits per spin you receive 10 credits of value").

6. Age, affordability and responsible gambling cues

   • Include responsible gambling messages and links to help resources on every promotional page and creative.
   • When offers could encourage high spending, present affordability tools and voluntary limits before purchase (deposit caps, session timers).
   • Use soft‑stop mechanics for players who exceed defined loss thresholds within a short window.

7. Creative QA and claim substantiation

   • Keep evidence to support comparative or scarcity claims (logs, timestamps, stock counts) for 24 months.
   • Check translations: a compliant English claim must match meaning in all localized creatives.
   • Log creative changes and A/B tests; do not run experiments that intentionally obscure cost/value.

8. Payment flows and refunds

   • Display final price, taxes and fees before payment authorization. Don’t rely on post‑purchase emails to disclose costs.
   • Make refund policies easy to find and enforce quick, fair resolution for mis-sold promotions.

9. Recordkeeping and audit trail

   • Maintain a promotions ledger: creative, targeting, dates, owners, evidence supporting claims, and post‑campaign analytics for two years.
   • Schedule periodic audits (quarterly minimum) and keep compliance sign‑off records for each campaign.

10. Monitoring and KPIs

    • Track complaints volume and reasons per campaign (display on a compliance dashboard).
    • Monitor conversion lifts against complaint spikes and increase manual review thresholds if complaints exceed X per 10k impressions.
    • Log refund and chargeback rates tied to specific promotions.

Practical fixes and compliant language examples

Below are ready‑to‑use phrase alternatives and UI fixes that meet transparency and consumer protection expectations.

Headline rewrites (from aggressive → compliant)

• Aggressive: "Hurry — 100 free spins, limited time!" → Compliant: "Get 100 spins (value: $10). Offer valid until [date]. Wagering applies."
• Aggressive: "Buy the VIP pack now or miss out!" → Compliant: "VIP pack: $49.99 — includes X, Y. Limited stock? Show exact remaining quantity and dates, or omit scarcity."
• Aggressive: "Free coins with every purchase" → Compliant: "Receive bonus coins equal to 10% of purchase; coins expire in 30 days. See T&Cs."

UI fixes to reduce pressure

• Replace ticking countdowns with a static expiry date and a clock only when inventory data proves scarcity.
• Show local currency equivalents near virtual currency balances and during checkout.
• Make the CTA neutral: "Claim details" or "See terms & buy", not "Don’t miss out".

Training, governance and remediation workflow

Audit results only matter if they trigger change. Build a governance model with these roles and processes.

• Promotions owner: marketing product manager — submits new promotions with audit checklist attached.
• Compliance reviewer: legal/regulatory specialist — mandatory sign‑off before launch.
• Creative reviewer: UX designer — ensures UI fixes to eliminate dark patterns.
• Post‑launch monitor: analytics lead — watches complaints and refund KPIs for 14 days after launch.

Escalation flow: Failures rated high risk must be paused within 24 hours, and either fixed or pulled with a remediation record kept for regulators.

Case study snapshot: How a mid‑tier operator avoided a regulatory hit

In late 2025, a European operator saw complaint spikes after a “double coins” campaign. Applying this audit framework, they discovered three issues: ambiguous coin‑to‑currency ratio, a countdown misrepresenting stock, and a buried max withdrawal clause. They paused the campaign, updated the UI to show local currency equivalents, removed the countdown, and added a clear max cashout line adjacent to the CTA. Complaints dropped 78% and conversion normalized within two weeks. Keeping the audit log prevented further escalation when the regulator requested campaign materials.

Metrics to track after audit implementation

• Promotional complaint rate (per 10k impressions)
• Refund/chargeback rate tied to promotions
• Average time to pause non‑compliant campaigns (target: <24 hours)
• Share of campaigns passing first‑round compliance checks (target: >95%)

Legal patchwork: advertising law and consumer protection notes

Regulatory regimes vary — but the current global signal (EU member states, UK, Australia and Italy’s AGCM) converges on the same principles: truthful claims, no pressure tactics, and meaningful disclosure. In 2026, enforcement will focus on practical consumer harm: undisclosed costs, misleading scarcity, and inducements that exploit minors or vulnerable groups. Operators should ensure promotional audits align with local advertising codes and the operator’s licensing conditions.

Actionable next steps (30/60/90 day roadmap)

1. 30 days: Run the checklist on all active promotions; pause ones that fail high‑risk items. Update product & creative sign‑off to require compliance sign‑off.
2. 60 days: Implement UI fixes: currency equivalents, visible T&Cs adjacent to CTAs, remove pressure timers unless substantiated.
3. 90 days: Deploy monitoring dashboard for complaint rates and conversion anomalies. Train marketing and affiliates on compliant messaging.

Final takeaways

Regulatory actions like AGCM’s probe are a warning and an opportunity. Operators who proactively audit promotions for transparency, fairness and non‑predation reduce legal risk and increase long‑term player trust — a measurable commercial advantage in 2026’s competitive market. The audit checklist above is a practical, enforceable way to prove your offers are consumer‑safe and compliant with advertising law.

Call to action

Start your audit today: implement the checklist for one live promotion this week and measure results over 14 days. Need a tailored compliance review or a downloadable audit template adapted to your license jurisdictions? Contact our compliance team for a free 30‑minute promotional risk assessment and get a customizable audit workbook you can deploy immediately.

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