European Gaming & Betting Association

European Commission opposes payment blocking in France

The European Gaming and Betting Association (EGBA) welcomes the European Commission’s detailed opinion against the French draft decree on gaming payments. The draft intends to oblige French financial institutions to block payment orders from online gaming operators listed by the French authorities, even those that are fully licensed, regulated and based in the EU.

Sigrid Ligné, EGBA Secretary General said: “Today’s action consolidates the Commission’s position that unjustified payment blocking in our sector clearly contravenes EU law. We welcome the Commission’s action and hope that this will send a clear signal to other EU and EFTA Member States that such proposals will not be tolerated”.   

The French draft decree is the second of two decrees, drafted under the 2007 Delinquency Act, which attempt to erect technical barriers to further protect the French gambling monopolies that are already the subject of separate EU infringement proceedings. The first draft decree, notified in April 2007, sought to oblige Internet Service Providers to discourage consumers from accessing websites others than those operated by the French gaming monopolies: Francaise des Jeux and PMU.  

That draft decree was never adopted following a detailed opinion issued by the European Commission last July. Today’s decision is a timely reminder that restrictions on the free movement of capital and payments, as set out in Article 56 of the EC Treaty, are not acceptable. Similar restrictions are currently being considered in Germany, Norway and the Netherlands; they are already in place in the United States. As demonstrated in the U.S experience “such restrictions are difficult to implement, easy to circumvent, inefficient and foster the growth of an underground market” added Sigrid Ligné.  

Today’s Commission detailed opinion extends the standstill period of non-adoption until 31 March 2008, during which time France cannot adopt its draft decree. If France then decides to adopt the text despite the Commission warnings, the Commission can immediately launch infringement proceedings.  

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For further information or comment please contact:

Sigrid Ligné: +32 (0) 2 256 7527

sigrid.ligne@egba.eu

The EGBA is an association of the leading European gaming and betting operators Bet-at-home.com, bwin, Digibet, Carmen Media Group, Expekt, Interwetten, PartyGaming and Unibet. EGBA is a Brussels-based nonprofit making association. It promotes the right of private gaming and betting operators that are regulated and licensed in one Member State to a fair market access throughout the European Union.

www.egba.eu 

The Notification Procedure 

Under Directive 98/34/EC, Member States must notify to the Commission and other Member States draft regulations regarding products and Information Society services such as online gaming and betting, before adopting them. This procedure is aimed at preventing Member States from creating new barriers to the internal market freedoms by giving the opportunity to the Commission and Member States to evaluate the content of a draft law before it is adopted. The notification of a text to the Commission opens a three month standstill period during which the draft text must not be adopted. This period allows the Commission and Member States to ascertain whether the draft text presents any unjustified barriers to the internal market. The Commission and/or Member States may then issue:·        

a detailed opinion, if they consider that the draft text would, if implemented, create barriers to trade, services or establishment within the EU;·        

comments, if they consider that the text, although in principle with EC law, raises issues of interpretation or requires further details; or ·        

no response, if they consider that the text is compatible with EU law.A detailed opinion attempts to prevent Members States from adopting a text, which contains barriers to the internal market, or to urge them to remove the restrictive provisions, thereby avoiding unnecessary legislative work and future EU infringement proceedings.  

Once a detailed opinion had been issued, the standstill period, during which the draft text must not be adopted, is extended by one month. If, after this time, the draft text is adopted without modification, the Commission can immediately commence an infringement procedure against the Member State’s newly adopted legislation. On 31 January 2008, the Commission launched an infringement procedure against Germany after it failed to respect the detailed opinion issued against it in March 2007: Link to Commission press release. 

For more information on the detailed opinion against the draft French financial blocking decree click here.

For more information on the detailed opinion against the draft French ISP decree click here.

To access the TRIS database and search for other draft laws see: http://ec.europa.eu/enterprise/tris/pisa/app/search/index.cfm?lang=EN

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