Quebec court rules against ISP blocking of online gambling operators
Parliamentary bill declared “unconstitutional” following CTWA complaint
A Quebec Superior Court judge has ruled against government proposals to block the domains of international online gambling operators in the Canadian province.
The so-called bill 74, first proposed in early 2016 and included in the Quebec Budget Act, provided for the creation of a blacklist of unauthorised online gambling providers, the first of its kind in North America.
Passage of the bill into law was approved by Quebec legislators in May 2016.
However, Justice Pierre Noilett dismissed the Act’s stated aim of protecting Quebec consumers, finding that the “pith and substance [of the bill] is to prevent online gambling not set up and operated by the province from being ‘communicated’ by ISPs, [rather than] the protection of consumers or their health”.
He therefore deemed the proposals to be unconstitutional.
This latest court case is the result of a complaint submitted by the Canadian Wireless Telecommunications Association (CWTA), the trade body which represents Canada’s internet service providers.
Detailing its reasons for launching the legal challenge, the CWTA argued that assembly does not have the authority to dictate which websites it can or cannot provide access to, only the federal regulator, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) could do so under the Canadian Telecommunications Act (1993).
The act, explicitly states carriers “shall not control the content or influence the meaning or purpose of telecommunications carried by it for the public” unless the CRTC says otherwise.
In a statement, CTWA manager of government relations Tiéoulé Traoré said: “We have always been clear that Canadians are better served by a proportionate and symmetrical set of federal regulations than a patchwork of provincial regulations,”
In an earlier decision published in December 2016, the CRTC asserted the authority of the federal telecommunications act over the revised Quebec Budget Act, launching a consultation which received supporting responses from several industry stakeholders and the Attorney General of Quebec.