German court finds blocking order against Lottoland unlawful
Higher Administrative Court of Rhineland-Palatinate establishes that the GGL had no legal basis to block Lottoland from operating in Germany
The Higher Administrative Court of Rhineland-Palatinate has found the Gemeinsame Glücksspielbehörde der Länder’s (GGL) ISP blocking order against Lottoland to be unlawful.
The court found that there was no legal basis for blocking the internet sites of a foreign gambling provider.
The GGL ordered German ISPs to block the domain of Lottoland in October 2022, which the operator subsequently filed a complaint against and at the same time sought interim legal protection.
As part of the appeal, Lottoland argued that the blocking order was not permitted under German gambling law as the operator had applied for licences which are still being processed by the GGL.
At the time, the Koblenz Administrative Court rejected the application for interim relief.
However, after responding to the appeal, the Higher Administrative Court of Rhineland-Palatinate amended the original decisions and ordered to suspend the blocking order.
At the time of the issuing of the blocking orders, a Lottoland spokesperson said: “It is obvious that the state-owned GGL wants to create facts on behalf of the state lottery companies and federal states in order to protect the ultimately remaining lottery monopoly and to eliminate competitors in the lottery sector – for purely fiscal reasons.
“The lottery betting bans are quite obviously not compatible with European law. It speaks for itself that the federal states’ and lottery companies’ own advisors have already determined this in an expert opinion in 2019.”
Delivering its verdict, the Higher Administrative Court of Rhineland-Palatinate said Lottoland’s operations did not infringe on regulation concerning unauthorised gambling offerings.
The court said that there are provisions in the regulations that allow for blocking orders, but these requirements were not met when the GGL issued the orders.