Italian court grants licence expiry extension until December 2022
Operators that risked having their services terminated by ADM are now free to continue in the country for at least the next 12 months
An Italian court has ruled in favour of more than 30 operators in a legal challenge against the country’s gambling regulator (ADM) over the expiration of their Italian licences.
Lazio’s TAR Administrative Court has granted permission for licensed international operators to offer their services in the country until 31 December 2022.
The certificates were previously set to expire on an extended deadline of October 2021 after a protracted legal wrangle relating to the regulator’s interpretation of a 2016 Italian budget law that prescribed a four-year duration for the “alignment” deadline, during which the licences would expire for all Italian-licensed operators.
The idea was for the synchronised expiry date to lead to the launch of a new tender for concessions in the country, but updated iterations of the decree have been implemented since 2016, overruling the prior law, which ADM has been so keen to enforce.
The Lazio court ruled in favour of the extension to December 2022 to ensure the continuity of tax entries, while it said the fight against illegal gambling would be strengthened by aligning the expiry dates for existing licence holders.
Moreno Marasco, president of Italian operator trade body LOGiCO, said: “As expected, the administrative court gave justice to companies whose gaming concessions where abruptly notified of termination by the Italian regulator, putting whole businesses and ultimately the legal framework in jeopardy for the wrongful application of 2016 laws, which were clearly designed to align expiration dates due to out-of-phase tenders over a nine-year period.
“Kudos to lawyer Valérie Peano for succeeding in supporting a number of those companies and some LOGiCO associates throughout the difficult period which might have seen them illicitly shut down by ill-informed application of laws.
“Congratulations to those who were patient enough to believe in the success of our reasoning. Today we can celebrate a victory,” he added.
The ball is now in the court of ADM, which could launch the new tender for Italian gambling licences before the end of 2022, otherwise another extension is likely to be sought.
The new tender is restricted to 40 licences with a minimum application price of €2.5m.