ECJ declares gambling operators must adhere to licensing rules of individual EU member states.

(AsiaGameHub) –   An opinion has been issued by Advocate General Nicholas Emiliou concerning a legal action filed against Tipico.

Luxembourg.- Nicholas Emiliou, an Advocate General (AG) at the European Court of Justice, has delivered a further opinion on a player loss case initiated in Germany. The request for this opinion came from Germany’s Federal Court of Justice.

This specific lawsuit targets the gambling operator Tipico in an attempt to recover player losses that occurred during a period when online gambling was not licensed in Germany. The matter was passed to the ECJ in July 2024.

According to Emiliou, the ECJ’s view is that gambling providers are obliged to adhere to the licensing regulations of individual EU member states, as long as those rules are consistent with the bloc’s principles on the free movement of services. Interpreting Article 56 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU), he commented: “Where a Member State requires a licence for the provision of certain services on its territory, and that requirement is, in itself, compatible with Article 56 TFEU, the national authorities, including the courts, are entitled to enforce that requirement against an operator which has provided services without the required licence.”

The Advocate General made it clear that member states maintain the authority to establish their own gambling regulations, acknowledging the “significant moral, religious and cultural differences between the Member States” in how games of chance are perceived.

He added, “The national authorities remain entitled, as regards their national territory, to adopt the regulatory arrangements which they consider appropriate to protect consumers against those risks, provided that the principle of proportionality is respected.”

It is important to note that the ECJ’s opinion deals solely with a particular aspect of EU law and does not settle the case, which will ultimately be ruled on by the German court.

Previously, in September, Emiliou had provided an opinion on case C‑440/23, which was referred by a Maltese civil court concerning Germany’s blocking of gambling websites licensed in Malta. In that finding, Emiliou considered Germany’s blocking of access to Maltese-licensed online casinos to be valid and determined that civil claims by players against operators without a local licence do not represent an abuse of EU law. This would bolster the legal foundation for player loss cases initiated against platforms holding Maltese licenses.

The opinion also concurred with the claimants that the contracts between players and operators were void under applicable contract law.