When the industry representatives gave evidence, we asked them if their companies had ever agreed to compensate people suffering from gambling harms only if they signed non-disclosure agreements. Mr Alexander replied “We [GvC] have never done that. We have NDAs in place that are customer- friendly. In 2019, we entered into 28 of these settlement agreements. They have all been disclosed to the Gambling Commission https://www.suissecasinoenligne.com/machines-a-sous/.

We have never forced customers to sign them in the way that you have said.” He added that “there were 28 … they were absolutely not forced, and they were fully disclosed to the Gambling Commission.

This evidence was given on 4 February 2020. We asked for further information on a number of issues. On 2 March we received supplementary evidence from GvC stating: “At GvC, we do not use “NDAs” per-se in relation to the settlement of customer disputes. We use “Settlement Agreements” … Usually, Settlement Agreements involve us paying a financial sum to the relevant customer.

However, we would not offer to pay someone more money in return for signing a settlement agreement … . Confidentiality clauses are commonplace in most, if not all Settlement Agreements, across all industries, where threatened or actual litigation is settled.”424