EC halts infringement proceedings against France

Following the French Government’s decision to liberalise online gambling by passing a law that introduces a national licensing system allowing for the cross border provision of sports betting on a non-discriminatory basis while providing strict controls on gaming, the European Commission has decided to halt infringement proceedings.
The Commission had previously taken the view that France’s restrictions on online gambling activities affected foreign operators and were disproportionate to and not consistent with the objective sought, thereby breaching EU rules on the freedom to provide services.
The current law now allows a broader choice of online gambling services for sports-betting and has legalised online poker in France.  The services are authorised and supervised by French online gambling regulator, ARJEL.
A number of European Commission investigations are pending with regard to requests for law amendments to Denmark, Finland, Greece, Hungary, the Netherlands and Sweden.

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