Thank you for e-mailing the Financial Conduct Authority's Information
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Web Site http://www.fca.org.uk (FCA); http://www.psr.org.uk (the Payment
Systems Regulator Limited)

Thank you for e-mailing the Financial Conduct Authority's Information
Disclosure Team.

This is an automatic acknowledgement to tell you that we have received
your email safely.

Please do not reply to this email.

We will be in touch in due course.

This communication and any attachments may contain personal information.
For more information about how and why we use personal information and who
to contact with any queries about this, please see our privacy notices:
FCA Privacy Notice (https://www.fca.org.uk/data-protection) and PSR
Privacy Notice
(https://www.psr.org.uk/cookies-privacy-a...).

This communication and any attachments contain information which is
confidential and may be subject to legal privilege. It is for intended
recipients only. If you are not the intended recipient you must not copy,
distribute, publish, rely on or otherwise use it without our consent. Some
of our communications may contain confidential information which it could
be a criminal offence for you to disclose or use without authority. If you
have received this email in error please notify [email address]
immediately and delete the email from your computer. Further information
on the classification and handling of FCA information can be found on the
FCA website
(http://www.fca.org.uk/site-info/legal/fc...).

The FCA (or, if this email originates from the Payment Systems Regulator
Limited, the FCA on behalf of the Payment Systems Regulator Limited / the
Payment Systems Regulator Limited) reserves the right to monitor all email
communications for compliance with legal, regulatory and professional
standards.

This email is not intended to nor should it be taken to create any legal
relations or contractual relationships. This email has originated from the
Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), or the Payment Systems Regulator
Limited.

The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) is registered as a limited company
in England and Wales No. 1920623. Registered office: 12 Endeavour Square,
Stratford, London, E20 1JN, United Kingdom

The Payment Systems Regulator Limited is registered as a limited company
in England and Wales No. 8970864. Registered office: 12 Endeavour Square,
Stratford, London, E20 1JN, United Kingdom

Switchboard 020 7066 1000

Web Site http://www.fca.org.uk (FCA); http://www.psr.org.uk (the Payment
Systems Regulator Limited)

Our Ref: FOI9190

Dear Mr Inman,

Freedom of Information: Right to know request

Thank you for your email of 4 April 2022, in which you asked:

‘In August 2021, the Gambling Commission contacted the FCA stating their
assumption that SportsBroker may partially fall under the FCAs remit.

 A. I'd like any emails between GC and FCA regarding Sportsbroker, as well
as

 B. information regarding the ruling made by the FCA on what product
Sportsbroker is and whether it should or should not be regulated by
the GC or FCA’

We have processed your request in line with the Freedom of Information Act
2000 (FOIA) and our response is below.

Our decision on your request

Point A

We can confirm that the FCA was contacted by the Gambling Commission in
August 2021 with regard to Sportsbroker. However, we can neither confirm
nor deny whether we hold any information relevant to point A of your
request. This is because such confirmation or denial would result in the
disclosure of information which relates to the business affairs of the
Gambling Commission and of the firm in question. This information (if
held) would have been received by the FCA in the discharge of its
functions under the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 (FSMA).

Section 348 of FSMA prevents us from disclosing such ‘confidential
information’, except in certain limited circumstances (none of which would
apply here). Therefore, under section 44 (Prohibitions on disclosure) of
FOIA, we cannot confirm or deny whether we hold any information relevant
to this point of your request.

For more information on why this exemption applies, please see Annex A
below.

Point B

We do not hold any information relevant to this point of your request, as
we can confirm that the FCA has not made any formal ruling on whether
Sportbroker should or should not be regulated by the GC or the FCA.

Your right to complain under FOIA

If you are unhappy with this response, you have the right to request an
internal review.  To do so, please contact us within 40 working days of
the date of this response at [1][email address].

If you are not content with the outcome of the internal review, you also
have a right of appeal to the Information Commissioner by phone or on
their website at:

Telephone: 0303 123 1113

Website: [2]www.ico.org.uk

Yours sincerely,

Information Disclosure Team

12 Endeavour Square

London

E20 1JN

Annex A

General right of access to information held by public authorities

Anyone requesting information from a public authority is entitled to be
informed in writing whether it holds the information described (this is
under section 1(1)(a) of FOIA).  If the public authority does hold it, the
person requesting it is entitled to have the information communicated to
them, under section 1(1)(b). However, there are exclusions and exemptions
to these rights.

Section 44 is one of them. It is an absolute exemption which means that if
it is engaged, a weighing of the public interest for and against
maintaining the exclusion of the duty to confirm or deny whether the
information is held by a public authority is not required.

·                Part A of your request – Section 44(1) of FOIA

Under section 44(1), information is exempt from disclosure if disclosure
is prohibited under another Act separate from FOIA. In this regard,
section 348 of FSMA restricts the FCA from disclosing ‘confidential
information’ it has received in the course of carrying out its public
function.  FSMA allows exceptions to this in a few specific circumstances
(none of which would apply here).

By ‘confidential information’ we mean non-public and non-anonymised
information concerning a person’s business or other affairs, which the FCA
received in the course of carrying out its functions under FSMA. It is
also possible for ‘received’ information to be embedded within information
created by the FCA, and such information would also exempt from disclosure
under section 44 of FOIA. 

If we disclosed this information, without both the provider’s consent and
the consent of the person to which the information relates, we would be in
breach of section 348 of FSMA. This would be a criminal offence.

In many requests for information under FOIA we have to judge different
factors to decide whether or not disclosing the requested information
would be in the public interest. For this request however, we have an
‘absolute’ exemption against supplying the information, and so we do not
need to make this kind of judgement.

·                Part B of your request - Section 44 (2) of FOIA

Under section 44(2) of FOIA, a public authority does not have to confirm
or deny whether it holds the information requested if doing so is
prohibited under another Act separate from FOIA. In this regard, section
348 of FSMA prevents us from disclosing ‘confidential information’ we have
received, except in certain limited circumstances (none of which would
apply here).

If we held information falling within the scope of your request (which we
do not confirm or deny) it would be ‘confidential information’ which was
received by the FCA in the discharge of its functions under FSMA.
Disclosing such ‘confidential information’, without the consent of the
provider of the information – and, if different, the consent of the person
the information relates to – would breach section 348 of FSMA and would be
a criminal offence.

This communication and any attachments may contain personal information.
For more information about how and why we use personal information and who
to contact with any queries about this, please see our privacy notices:
FCA Privacy Notice (https://www.fca.org.uk/data-protection) and PSR
Privacy Notice
(https://www.psr.org.uk/cookies-privacy-a...).

This communication and any attachments contain information which is
confidential and may be subject to legal privilege. It is for intended
recipients only. If you are not the intended recipient you must not copy,
distribute, publish, rely on or otherwise use it without our consent. Some
of our communications may contain confidential information which it could
be a criminal offence for you to disclose or use without authority. If you
have received this email in error please notify [email address]
immediately and delete the email from your computer. Further information
on the classification and handling of FCA information can be found on the
FCA website
(http://www.fca.org.uk/site-info/legal/fc...).

The FCA (or, if this email originates from the Payment Systems Regulator
Limited, the FCA on behalf of the Payment Systems Regulator Limited / the
Payment Systems Regulator Limited) reserves the right to monitor all email
communications for compliance with legal, regulatory and professional
standards.

This email is not intended to nor should it be taken to create any legal
relations or contractual relationships. This email has originated from the
Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), or the Payment Systems Regulator
Limited.

The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) is registered as a limited company
in England and Wales No. 1920623. Registered office: 12 Endeavour Square,
Stratford, London, E20 1JN, United Kingdom

The Payment Systems Regulator Limited is registered as a limited company
in England and Wales No. 8970864. Registered office: 12 Endeavour Square,
Stratford, London, E20 1JN, United Kingdom

Switchboard 020 7066 1000

Web Site http://www.fca.org.uk (FCA); http://www.psr.org.uk (the Payment
Systems Regulator Limited)

References

Visible links
1. file:///C:/Users/sali3/AppData/Roaming/OTLocal/PRODRM/Workbin/3E7676D.0/[email address]
2. http://www.ico.org.uk/