CJEU Rules In Favour Of EC Online Gambling Guidelines

March 15, 2018 6:23 PM
  • CDC Gaming Reports
March 15, 2018 6:23 PM
  • CDC Gaming Reports

This one goes back to 2014, when the European Commission took up a recommendation – in practice, a collection of guidelines – concerning advertising standards for online gambling services and health warnings therein, child protection in gambling access, age verification, and information guidelines for online gaming operators across the European Union. These, conveniently, were entitled the Online Gambling Guidelines. At the time, the EC invited all member states to notify them of any implementations or relevant measures taken to follow the guidelines in the recommendation.

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Belgium wanted this whole thing annulled from day one, and in the same year, October of 2014, they filed against the recommendation. They argued that it was superseding its status as a mere guideline or suggestion and was actually seeking to create and wield “an instrument with harmonizing effect” across the online gambling industry in the European Economic Community as a whole. Interestingly, an argument has been made that Belgium’s frustration with the recommendations were that, in the case of their own country, adhering to them would arguably lower Belgium’s standards for the gaming industry as defined in the Belgium Gaming Act.

Ultimately, the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) has recently ruled that in fact the recommendations are just that, non-binding guidelines, and as such has ruled against Belgium and refused to annul the recommendation.

Ever since the EC dropped all direct involvement with adjudicating online gambling infringement disputes back in October 2017, there has been action by several member states to regulate their own gambling industries in favour of domestic benefit, which has in some cases reduced market competition across the EC. The general effect has been a restriction of licensing across certain member states. The online industry has naturally reacted poorly to this news.

Still, the EU court system is actively maintaining limits to what EU states can do in law, as seen in the case of Hungary last week, where the CJEU ruled that their online gaming laws were not compatible with EU law and were unfavourable to international operators. Hence, there are limits to the barriers nation states of the EU can throw up, as seen again in this Belgian case. The recommendation stands.