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Draft Italian Finance Act 2006: test case for the European Commission
The Italian Government submitted to the Italian Parliament on 29th September its draft Finance Act 2006 in which Section 66 is dedicated to gambling.
Section 66 is designed to deny access for betting services suppliers, who are not in possession of an Italian concession, to the Italian telecommunications and Internet networks. In practice, the Ministry of Economy will notify the national telecommunications and Internet providers with a blacklist of betting operators who do not hold Italian concessions. The telecommunications and Internet providers will have the duty of denying access to these betting operators. Section 66 also proposes tax reductions which do not apply to all undertakings and industries but only to the Italian official betting concessionaires.
If no action is taken by the Commission to prevent its adoption by the Italian Parliament before the end of this year, Section 66 would violate no less than five categories of Community rules or legislations:
- Freedom of establishment and freedom to provide cross-border services: Articles 43 and 49 of the EC Treaty and the recent ECJ case law
- Freedom to supply telecommunication services: Directive 2002/20/EC on the Authorisation of Electronic Communications Networks and Services
- Personal data protection: Directive 2002/58/EC on Privacy and Electronic Communications
- State aids: Article 87.1 of the EC Treaty
- Notification of technical standards and regulations affecting services of the information society: Directive 98/34/EC laying down a procedure for the provision of information in the field of technical standards and regulations
On 31st October 2005, well established Community operators active on the Italian market under EU law, alerted the EU Commissioners directly competent for these various breaches: Charlie McCreevy (Ireland, Internal Market), Viviane Reding (Luxembourg, Media and Information Society) Franco Frattini (Italy, Justice, Liberty and Security), Neelie Kroes (The Netherlands, Competition) and Günter Verheugen (Germany, Enterprise and Industry).
These Community operators originating from Germany, Scandinavia and the UK see the Draft Finance Act as a new attempt by the Italian Government to prevent access of foreign operators to their market.
Clive Hawkswood, Chief Executive of the Remote Gambling Association (RGA) commented that "The failure of the Commission to address our complaints has encouraged the Italian Government to maintain its illegal gambling legislation and to seek to adopt new and even more restrictive measures".
Didier Dewyn, Secretary General of the European Betting Association (EBA) said that «We need the Commission to do something and to accept and discharge its responsibilities. It has to ensure the respect of EU law. Urgent action is needed unless they want the EU business community to believe that the Internal Market is a joke".
A complaint against the Draft Italian Finance Act 2006 is in the process of being filed with the European Commission.
