Highest EU court denies Unibet instant market access in Sweden

19.03.2007, Lesen Sie hier den Bericht über «Highest EU court denies Unibet instant market access in Sweden».

Member States have the right to maintain a restrictive gaming environment (Sweden).- The European Court of Justice (ECJ) rejected the claim of private Internet gambling operator Unibet for instant access to a Member State’s market, Sweden. As a result, the firm must wait for a decision in the main procedure pending with Swedish courts.

Winfried Wortmann, President of the European State Lotteries and Toto Association (European Lotteries, EL), welcomed the ruling: “Today’s ruling confirms yet again that private gambling operators must comply with EU Member States’ national laws restricting the offer of sports betting and other gambling services. National authorities are quite within their rights to uphold these laws.”

Wortmann recalled last week’s ECJ decision in the Placanica case: “Last week the Court made clear that Member States do not have to recognise foreign gambling licenses. Moreover - whatever the claims of the private sector in the pages of the press - the Court’s ruling last week implicitly recognised gambling monopolies. European Lotteries welcomes the clarity the Court’s latest rulings have brought to the issue. There is no doubt that Member States are free to define their own gambling policy objectives and to determine, in detail, how best to safeguard their citizens from being subjected to rampant competition in this highly sensitive sector”.

He added: “Public interest is at stake here since Member States governments, quite rightly, are concerned about the potentially undesirable nature of unfettered gambling. Offshore companies, in particular, are trying to break into EU markets, some without necessarily subjecting themselves to EU laws. This is clearly not right.”

The Placanica judgment of the Court of 6 March 2007 explicitly confirmed existing jurisprudence (established since the 1994 Schindler case) which gives Member States the right to maintain a restrictive gaming environment and/or a monopoly and maintain the right to penalise illegal cross-border offerings in gambling services.

The Court recognised that consumer protection, the prevention of both fraud and incitement to squander on gaming, as well as the general need to preserve public order were reasons of over-riding general interest which justify restrictions on the right to provide cross-border services and the right of a company to set up shop in another Member State.

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