The Kyiv District Administrative Court has ruled illegal and cancelled a 400,000 UAH (~$10,000 USD) fine imposed by the regulator «PlayCity» against «SLOTS U.A.» LLC. The financial penalty was originally issued due to a technical error during the electronic submission of documents, which the regulator refused to account for, violating administrative procedure principles.
The grounds for the sanctions imposed by the «PlayCity» agency were alleged failure to provide required information on time. As revealed during the court proceedings, the online casino operator had sent all necessary materials to the regulator via email on schedule; however, the cover letter containing the responses failed to attach due to a technical glitch.
Upon discovering the issue, the company immediately resent the complete document package. Despite this, the regulatory body ignored the explanation and proceeded to issue the financial penalty anyway.
«The regulator took a purely formal approach to the case, failing to analyze the received materials or consider the company’s explanations, thereby violating the principles of administrative procedure,» the court documents stated.
After a detailed review of the evidence, the court ruled in favor of the plaintiff, deeming the regulatory body’s actions unjustified. Consequently, the court decision fully nullified the fines levied against «SLOTS U.A.» LLC.
Furthermore, the court ordered «PlayCity» to reimburse 6,000 UAH from its budget to cover the company’s legal filing fees. This ruling sets an important legal precedent regarding the inadmissibility of overly formalistic approaches by regulatory bodies when auditing business entities.