RGA “deeply disappointed” by EC decision to drop gambling enforcement cases
But legal experts suggest “nothing has changed in practice”, with principle of freedom to provide services still in place
The Remote Gambling Association (RGA) has expressed its “deep disappointment” at the European Commission’s decision to drop all online gambling infringement cases against member states.
The decision, first covered by EGR last week, was officially confirmed by the Commission in a press release yesterday.
The Commission said online gambling was not one of its political priorities, and as disputes could be settled through national courts, was dropping all pending infringement cases and outstanding complaints against EU Member States that related to gambling.
The decision was branded as “highly questionable” by the RGA which suggested it could embolden member states to enforce restrictive regulatory frameworks.
“The actions of these Member States severely undermine the free provision of services, which is one of the four freedoms guaranteed under the EU Treaty,” the RGA said in a statement.
“By taking this sweeping action to drop all of those cases the European Commission has ignored the need for more enforcement effort in a field that is inherently of a cross-border nature and cannot be resolved solely at national level.
“More fundamentally, in doing so the European Commission has blatantly abandoned its role as a Guardian of the Treaty and this must have wider ramifications for the proper working of the Internal Market.”
The RGA said it would “continue to work with Member States with the aim of establishing EU-compliant regimes that would benefit European consumers, the online gambling industry, and national governments.”
However, some legal experts suggested the decision may not have as much of a negative effect on operators as originally feared.
Stephen Ketteley, partner at Wiggin law firm, said the principles of freedom to provide services still applied, and operators would just have to turn to national courts to have their rights upheld.
“The European Commission cannot, through making a clearly politically motivated decision to prioritise its resources elsewhere, overturn ECJ jurisprudence,” Ketteley said.
“The impact will be more litigation and a need to rely on the national courts and the ECJ to uphold the essential TFEU freedoms, if the European Commission won’t.”
He added: “One might expect certain Member States (who no longer have infringement proceedings against their names) to feel somewhat emboldened and enforcement risk may, in theory at least, increase. Assuming the courts continue to observe the rule of law, one hopes such risk won’t necessarily manifest itself in anything tangible.
Betsson also told EGR that “from a legal perspective, nothing has changed”.
“The freedom of services still applies in the way it has been upheld in court judgments many times. It would of course be very upsetting for Betsson and other online companies if the Commission is not interested in seeing that the principles upon which the EU is based are upheld.”