Online Ban Challenged

The European Commission has challenged the ban that Germany has set forth against the online gaming industry saying that it is unwarranted, and that they are simply trying to protect their monopoly. They have given them a month to change the ban to something less restrictive, and if Germany does not comply they could be facing legal action from the EU.

This is only one in a long string of complaints against Germany and other states in the new laws that they have been passing in regards to internet gambling. The EU feels that several states have been acting in a discriminatory manner towards those states that offer online gambling, and that if they want to ban all online gambling, then they have to ban all of it.

However, states such as Germany are only banning some of the forms of gambling and not all of them, as Germany still allows horse racing. The EU says that the ban cannot be allowed, and is in response to a court challenge that Germany is currently facing. Germany has been challenged by an online gambling operator who said that Germany’s ban does not allow them to their “freedom of profession” and that it needed to be eliminated.

The court had given Germany until the end of the year to resolve the case, and they were given two choices: they were to either lift the ban and allow competition within their state, or they could maintain the monopoly but could not promote it with any form of marketing. Germany chose to continue the monopoly and redrafted their charter.



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