Germany-Malta lawsuit to be ruled on by the EU in July

A lawsuit initiated by a German player against Malta-based Lottoland has reached the halls of the European Court of Justice.

The details around Case C-440 were laid out in front of the jurors in Luxembourg, who had to go all the way back to 2021 in order to get the full picture.

That’s when a German player took Lottoland to court, as he was allegedly able to use the operator’s services while in his home country – services that were not licensed by Germany’s gambling regulator. 

Lawyer Volker Ramge then got in touch with the player and purchased the claim, only for it to resurface again later on Maltese territory – this time bigger in scope, representing more German customers against an even wider set of Malta-headquartered operators which have also supposedly tackled the German market without being licensed there.

In the wake of the lawsuit’s filing, the defendants then brought the case to the European Court of Justice, as German lawyer István Cocron writes: “Subsequently, the parties there unanimously sought an ECJ submission so that the ECJ would have to comment on the conformity of the German Interstate Treaty on Gambling 2012 with European law.”

The biggest challenge for jurors now that they’ve withdrawn after the hearing will be to assess European legislation against Germany’s gambling law prior to its fourth iteration (GlüStV 2021), as pointed out by Cocron.

The official opinion of the Advocate General is expected to be publicly announced on 10 July. 

Evasive manoeuvres

Much of the international and legal scrutiny of Maltese gambling regulation revolves around e Bill 55 – a law introduced in 2023 which allowed Malta’s judiciary to “refuse the recognition and enforcement of foreign judgements related to the online gambling sector”.

In the first hours of its enforcement, the Malta Gaming Authority (MGA) took a firm stance in favour of the new law, welcoming it as a necessary step towards protecting MGA-licensed businesses from disputes that are ‘not in line with Europe’s free market values’.

However, after officially becoming part of Malta’s gambling framework, the legislature naturally gained notoriety among fellow EU countries, including Germany and its state regulator, the GGL, which has described it as “incompatible with EU laws”.