European Commission Rewards French Market Liberalization

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November 25th, 2010

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It decided to halt infringement proceedings

It was announced by the European Commission that it will halt infringement proceedings against France, as the country passed a law on liberalization of online gambling, introducing a national licensing system allowing for the cross border provision of sports betting on a non-discriminatory basis and at the same time providing strict controls on gaming.

Prior to this, the Commission considered that the restrictions applied by France in terms of online gambling breached the EU rules on the freedom to provide services, as they affected foreign operators and were disproportionate to and not consistent with the objective sought.

The new legislation introduces a national online gambling regulator ARJEL, which supervises and authorizes all services, which now include a wide sports-betting and legalized online poker offering.

The Commission has a number of pending investigations in terms of law amendments for Denmark, Finland, Greece, Hungary, the Netherlands and Sweden.

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