Highest German court dismissed a lawsuit against a number of foreign sportsbooks

[alfred666]

The BGH decided pro a number of foreign sportsbook operators yesterday, Feb 13th.

http://www.ftd.de/unternehmen/handel...er/317431.html
(it's only german though)

Even though the case only considered the legal situation prior to the new law which was brought into effect January 1st 2008 it is an important victory for german facing gaming operators.

The legal battle will go on ...

[lauriejim]

Originally Posted by alfred666

The BGH decided pro a number of foreign sportsbook operators yesterday, Feb 13th.

http://www.ftd.de/unternehmen/handel...er/317431.html
(it's only german though)

Even though the case only considered the legal situation prior to the new law which was brought into effect January 1st 2008 it is an important victory for german facing gaming operators.

The legal battle will go on ...

maybe someone who speaks german can give us a brief run down on the article. i would be interested if anyone has the time to translate........................laurie

[RobWin]

Here you go Laurie:This is the Babel Fish Translation

ROUNDUP: BGH does not point complaints toward sport bet mediators starting from private sport offers was illegal before the Oddset judgement of the Federal Constitutional Court from the spring 2006. With this reason the Federal High Court (BGH) in Karlsruhe rejected demands for payment of damages of national gambling monopolists on Thursday against private competitors.

The Free State of Bavaria as well as the West German one and of Bremen the Lotteriegesellschaft failed thereby with complaints against private mediators of sport bets. The national monopoly on Oddset Sportwetten had been reprimanded on 28 March 2006 by the Federal

Constitutional Court in its arrangement at that time as unconstitutional. From it it results according to BGH that the exclusion of private offerers before the judgement date their occupation liberty as well as after freedom to establish residence your-genuinly hurt (Az: I ZR 140/04, 187/04, 207/04 u. 13/06 from 14 February 2008). However the BGH judgement refers expressly only to old cases.

The condition judges had attached the receipt of the national monopoly at that time to strict defaults for the fight of the play craze and had demanded an omission of advertising measures. Whether the seitherige practice of the national monopolists was sufficient, in order to justify a prohibition of private enterprises, was not topic of the BGH decision. Just as little the court had to judge of the gambling convention valid since yearly beginning.

In the concrete cases, in which it went around requirements on omission, information and payment of damages, kept from England, Austria and Cyprus acting offerer the upper hand. Their lawyers had criticized in the negotiation in November, the state too few did to convert around the defaults of the condition judges to more restraint with the advertisement.

[Casinomeister]

Here is the English version:

Commentary - Hambach & Hambach

New Decision by the BGH (German Federal Court of Justice) on Betting Law: Legal History or U-Turn?

Munich 14 Feb. 2008: Today, the I. Zivilsenat (first division for civil matters) at the Bundesgerichtshof (German Federal Court of Justice) dismissed in four cases action filed by state-run gambling providers (among others Westlotto) against private sports betting providers holding GDR and EU licences (among others bwin). In its press release, the BGH headlined: “Old cases of offering and operating sports bets do not constitute a violation of competition”. Initial press reports state that “the flood of law suits against providers of sports bets was thrown out on Thursday by the Bundesgerichtshof (BGH)”.

In its 2004 decision, the previous instance, the OLG (Higher Regional Court) of Hamburg had made reference to the so-called “Schöner Wetten“ decision of the BGH and had stated in the headnote:

You can read the rest here: courtesy of Hambach & Hambach
http://www.betting-law.de/cms/cms/fr...9&changelang=2