WAY OPEN FOR BWIN FOLLOWING GERMAN COURT DECISION

18 January 2008

Austrian public company wins another round of German litigation


The way appears to be open for a resumption of online gambling activities in the German state of Baden-Wuerttemberg by Vienna listed gambling group Bwin, following a favourable judicial ruling this week, reports the Stuttgarter Nachrichten publication.

The Karlsruhe court ruled that Bwin Interactive Entertainment AG is allowed to accept wagers from customers in the German state, overturning a previous judgment forcing the company to stop accepting wagers. The latest ruling instructs that the previous order is not to be executed as such a regionally limited ban is technically not enforceable.

The fight is likely to continue, however as a spokesman told reporters that Baden-Wuerttemberg will appeal the court decision at the administrative court in Mannheim, Germany.

Bwin has around 2 million customers in Germany, and several hundred thousand of them are in Baden-Wuerttemberg, the newspaper revealed. The company has won a series of legal clashes with German authorities.

Earlier this week the European Gaming and Betting Association laid a formal complaint with the European Commission against an accord banning online gambling in the 16 states that make up modern Germany. EGBA represents most of the large European betting groups and is determined to ensure that European Union principles are respected.

Secretary general Sigrid Ligne told the BBC this week: "The official [German] claim is consumer protection and we feel that claim is unjustified."

"Why focus on internet gambling when traditional land-based offline gambling is being promoted in Germany?"

Ligne added: "We urge the Commission now to fast track our complaint and launch infringement proceedings against Germany."

The European Commission appears to support the view that the German legislation is incompatible with EU law, and has already warned the Germans and some other EU nations about prohibiting the free passage of goods and services.

The Commission insists it is not preventing any member state from its obligation to protect the public. Spokesman Oliver Drewes said the problem was that Germany, in common with certain other countries, is trying to restrict certain types of gambling while leaving others, particularly state lotteries, alone.

"You have to have the same rules for everybody and not a situation where different operators are treated in a different way," he said, adding that 10 EU member states were currently the subject of legal action on gambling, including Denmark, Sweden, Finland and Hungary.

"Prohibition is not and has never been a solution, be it in our sector or other sectors," EGBA chairman Norbert Teufelberger commented. "It is not a responsible approach and cannot be a substitute to an efficient gaming policy. Focusing on online gaming does not make sense when most recent peer-reviewed studies show that although online and offline gaming [have] different target audience[s], players' behaviour is similar whether online or offline."

He added that in a properly regulated environment, online gaming allows for higher transparency and technical and financial traceability.

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