Lobby group the Remote Gambling Association has submitted a new complaint to the EC over Greek enforcement measures designed to block private operators from the market and protect the OPAP monopoly.
The complaint of the lobby group, which represents the interests of a majority of Europe’s leading online operators, details how internet blocking and payment blocking restricts the freedom to provide services under EU law, and follows the ECJ last week ruling Greece’s OPAP monopoly to be illegal, as currently operated.
CEO Clive Hawkswood pointed out that the various measures deployed the Greek government had proved ineffective in countries such as Norway, adding that there was also there is “no legal justification for ISP and PSP blocking.”
The EU Member State introduced sanctions in early December preventing operators from targeting its online gambling market without a local licence, forcing the exit from the market of William Hill and Betfair. The measures were only later notified to the EC under pressure from officials.
The sanctions include the compilation of a blacklist of websites offering online games of chance without the requisite licence, with Greek ISPs required to block these or be hit with fines of €50,000 per day for each operator, with this doubling after seven days. Operators targeting Greek consumers without a licence face potential fines per day of €20,000 for each type of game and €10,000 for advertising, which double aafter seven days, with direct marketing communications costing €200,000 per infringement. Greek players also face daily fines of €1,000 a session.
The RGA and its Brussels-based counterpart the European Gaming and Betting Assocation had already submitted a formal complaint back in November regarding Greece’s non-notification of regulations to extend OPAP’s monopoly on online gambling to 2020, which scrap an earlier commtiment to issue licences to 24 companies that began paying taxes in 2011 following passage of online gambling regulations there.
The Court of Justice of the European Union (ECJ) last week ruled that Greece must either reform the monopoly and subject it to stricter controls, or open the market to competition by allowing other companies to apply for licences in a fair and transparent manner.
Article written by Stephen Carter
