Investigation into Kick Online Entertainment S.A’s compliance with a statutory information request

Background

On 3 March 2025, Ofcom opened an enforcement programme to monitor whether providers of regulated services across the sector have complied with their duty to complete, and keep a record of, an illegal content risk assessment. For user-to-user (‘U2U’) services, these duties are set out under sections 9 and 23 of the Online Safety Act 2023 (‘the Act’). For further information please see our Enforcement programme.

As part of this programme, Ofcom requested records of illegal content risk assessments, to assess compliance with the Act. Records were requested from a range of providers of in-scope services. Kick was one of those providers, in respect of the U2U service Motherless.com (‘Motherless’).

Investigation

Today, 14 May 2025, Ofcom has opened an investigation into Kick.

This investigation concerns Kick’s compliance with an information notice (‘the Notice’), issued on 10 March 2025 under section 100 of the Act. Kick was required, under section 102(8) of the Act, to respond to the Notice in the manner and form specified by 31 March 2025. Ofcom did not receive a response. Consequently, on 1 April 2025, Ofcom sent a letter to Kick informing it that it had failed to meet the deadline and that if it had not provided the requested information by 11:00 GMT on 16 April 2025 next steps would be considered, including whether to open an investigation.

As of today, Kick has not provided a response to the Notice.

The Notice explained that the information was required to assess Kick’s compliance with its duties to carry out and record an illegal content risk assessment for Motherless including how it was carried out, and its findings.

Ofcom uses the information gathered through statutory information requests to inform how it carries out its statutory functions as a regulator. It is therefore crucial that providers respond with accurate and complete information, in a timely fashion.

Ofcom’s investigation will examine whether Kick has failed to comply with its statutory duties in relation to the Notice. Ofcom will provide updates on this page as we progress this investigation.

Alongside this investigation, Ofcom has today opened a separate investigation into Kick’s compliance with its illegal content risk assessment duties. The bulletin for this investigation can be found here.