Swedish Gambling Sanctions May Be Illegal
(Bloomberg) -- Swedish rules punishing promoters of foreign Internet gambling services may be illegal, the European Union's highest court said.
While Sweden is justified in imposing restrictions on the promotion of games of chance offered abroad and unlicensed gambling services at home, it can't impose tougher sanctions for the promotion of gambling organized outside Sweden, the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg ruled today.
"If the persons carrying out the promotion of gambling organized in Sweden without a license incur penalties which are less strict than those imposed on the persons who advertise gambling organized in other member states, then the Swedish arrangements are discriminatory," the court ruled, according to an e-mailed statement.
Today's cases were triggered by criminal penalties against two newspaper editors who promoted online betting services offered by Ladbrokes Plc, Unibet Group Plc and two other companies in their publications' sports pages. The editors were sentenced each to pay fines of 50,000 Swedish krona ($6,600).
At least 25 cases over challenges to German, Austrian, Italian and Swedish gambling restrictions are pending at the EU court.
Anna Charlotta Johansson, a spokeswoman for the Swedish government, declined to immediately comment.
Germany and Sweden are among countries which have been threatened by the European Commission to loosen some of their restrictions and some recently started to do so. Previous EU court rulings said national gambling restrictions must meet policy goals, such as fighting fraud and gambling addiction, and can't be discriminatory.
The cases are C-447/08, Otto Sjoeberg v Aklagaren; C- 448/08, Anders Gerdin v Aklagaren Gerdin.
