Brussels, 12/06/2014 (Agence Europe) - The restrictions imposed in Germany on games of chance are compatible with the freedom to provide services and, even if one of the Länder adopts a more permissive regime, this does not call into question the legitimacy of the restrictions in the country overall, as long as it is limited in time, the Court of Justice of the EU established in a verdict (C-156/13) returned on Thursday 12 June.
As other member states also do, Germany forbids the organisation and facilitation of games of chance on the internet and the advertising of games of chance on television, internet and via telecommunications networks. An exemption is possible to promote lotteries and sporting bets on the internet, in order to offer a legal alternative to the expansion of illegal games of chance. The Land of Schleswig-Holstein abolished this restrictive framework between 1 January 2012 and 8 February 2013 and issued authorisations, which were valid for a number of years, to any person in the EU wishing to organise games of chance on the internet.
The matter was brought before the Court of Justice of the EU to determine whether the more liberal policy adopted by Schleswig-Holstein during this period called into question the compliance of the ban on games of chance in the other Länder with the rules on the freedom to provide services. This question is legitimate, as any restriction to the freedom to provide services must be based on the pursuit of objectives of general interest. The European judges concluded, firstly, that the German rules on games of chance were compatible with Community law and, secondly, that the existence of more liberal practices, limited in time and space to a single Land, does not call into question the restrictions applicable to the other Länder. (JK)