The ED press release can be accessed here.
The Directorate of Enforcement (ED) has asked quick commerce platform Zepto to join its money laundering investigation into Parimatch, the Cyprus-based offshore betting platform that India banned in 2023, over advertisements that ran on Zepto’s app and reached customers through its delivery network, The Economic Times reported. MediaNama flagged this exact advertisement in March 2025.
Why this matters: India’s betting ad rules name broadcasters, news publishers, and “online advertisement intermediaries,” language the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (MIB) drafted before grocery apps started selling ad space and inserting flyers into delivery bags. A TV channel that airs a banned betting ad knows it has broken a rule. Zepto sells the same exposure across its app and its delivery bags, yet says an outside ad agency placed the Parimatch ad, not the company itself.
The ED’s questions test that defence. If a platform can avoid responsibility by saying an outside agency booked the ad, every app can route betting promotions through a vendor and walk away clean. If it cannot, quick commerce platforms carry the same duty to vet advertisers that broadcasters and publishers already do. Under the Promotion and Regulation of Online Gaming Act, 2025 (PROGA), the exposure is sharper still: the law criminalises betting-ad promotion, so the question is no longer just whether Zepto loses safe harbour, but whether it faces criminal liability.
What the ED found:
- Parimatch advertisements ran on Zepto’s app.
- Flyers promoting the platform reached customers alongside grocery deliveries.
- The agency asked Zepto whether it verified the advertiser’s credentials before running the campaign.
- Zepto received an email, not a summons, and no executive faced questioning.
What Zepto told Entrackr: Responding to Entrackr, Zepto said it fully cooperated with the ED and shared all information available to the company. It traced the matter to an advertisement placed in March 2025 through a third-party media and vendor arrangement for a merchandise entity. The company said it:
- Did not onboard, contract with, or manage the advertiser.
- Had no role in any betting, gaming, payments, or user-acquisition activities linked to the entity.
- Ran the campaign through an external arrangement and connected investigating officials with the vendor.
“Zepto did not directly onboard, contract with, or manage the advertiser in question, and had no involvement in any betting, gaming, payments, user acquisition, or operational activity linked to the entity under investigation,” a company spokesperson told Entrackr.
What MediaNama reported in 2025: MediaNama reported in March 2025 that Zepto displayed Parimatch advertisements during the Indian Premier League (IPL) season. The ad appeared as a product priced at Rs 0, giving users no reason to remove it from their carts. As a result, it…
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