Brussels, 22/01/2015 (Agence Europe) - On Thursday 22 January (case C-463/13), the Court of Justice of the EU endorsed the way in which Italy reformed its gambling sector by aligning licence expiry dates and launching call for tenders for licences whose period of validity are shorter than that of previous licences.
After a number of rulings against it by the Court, particularly in 2007 (case C-338/04), Italy had its back to the wall and had to reform its gambling sector. This involved lifting the 1999 ban on publicly-traded limited liability companies acquiring concessions. Italy, then, began two reforms of the sector , in 2006 and 2012. These reforms led to a situation that was not to the satisfaction of all. British company Stanley International Betting and its Maltese subsidiary Stanleybet Malta have been operating in Italy for approximately fifteen years through “Data Transmission Centres” ('DTCs'), which are located in premises open to the public. DTCs place a computer link at the disposal of gamblers and transmit the data relating to each bet to the Stanley companies. They have neither a licence nor police authorisation and were excluded from tendering procedures in 1999 and 2006.
They recently requested the annulment of the 2012 call for tenders and the organisation of a new call for tenders. They complained that the period of validity of the new licences (40 months) was significantly lower than that of previous licences (between nine and twelve years), and criticised the exclusive nature of the marketing of the gambling products and the prohibition on the transfer of licences. They alleged that those restrictive conditions do not allow them to participate effectively in the call for tenders, in the light of the penalties associated with the grounds for revocation, suspension and withdrawal of licences.
The Court ruled that the reforms put in place could be appropriate courses of action in order to remedy the 2007 complaints with regard to the unlawful exclusion of certain operators. The Italian legislation is consistent with the principles of equal treatment and effectiveness since, while existing licensees enjoy an unfair competitive advantage, in that they were able to commence their activities years before the operators which were unlawfully excluded, those existing licensees do not have “even greater” competitive advantages, since the provisions at issue also apply to them. In addition, the Stanley companies cannot be truly described as “new entrants on the market”. The reorganisation of the licensing system through the alignment of licence expiry dates may contribute to a coherent pursuit of the legitimate objectives of reducing gambling opportunities or of combating criminality linked to betting and gambling and does not go beyond what is necessary in order to achieve those objectives. (JK)