PoC court battle gets underway
The GBGA's objection to Great Britain's new licensing regime will be heard by the courts today and tomorrow
The Gibraltar Betting and Gaming Association’s (GBGA) attempts to derail Great Britain’s plan to introduce a Point of Consumption (PoC) licensing regime reaches the courts today as the first stage of a two-day judicial review gets underway.
The case, which goes before Mr Justice Green, pits the GBGA against the Department for Culture Media and Sport (DCMS) and begins at 10:00 at London’s Royal Courts of Justice.
According to the GBGA, the new licensing framework should be considered “unlawful” and a “restriction on the freedom to provide services” as guaranteed by Article 56 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union.
The GBGA’s legal team, made up of Dinah Rose QC and Brian Kennelly of Blackstone Chambers and instructed by law firm Olswang, will also argue the regime will stoke the black market and result in less protection for consumers.
The DCMS recently failed in an attempt to have the case dismissed after arguing EU law shouldn’t be applied to goods and services provided by Gibraltar due to its status as a non-EU member state.
According to the DCMS, the new regime will ensure greater protection for consumers while it will also enable the regulator to effectively police the 85% of the market estimated to be in the hands of offshore operators.
The DCMS’s case will be put forward by Kieron Beal QC of Blackstone Chambers and Oliver Jones of Brick Court and instructed by Treasury solicitors.
The case comes ahead of the regime’s planned 1 October start date and some operators have prepared for implementation of the framework by withdrawing some or all of their products from the British market.
Last week, three quarters of respondents to an eGaming Review poll believed the GBGA would be unsuccessful in its attempts to get the Act overturned.