Sweden’s lottery law to be tested – Supreme Court orders
The Swedish Supreme Court has ordered that the nation’s Lottery Law be tested to see if it is incompatible with articles 12, 43 and 49 of the EC treaty.
The Lottery Law, which bans foreign gambling companies from advertising in Sweden, has been brought into doubt due to several rulings in the European Court of Justice. The Supreme Court has said that the Court of Appeal needs to look into the matter by testing the law.
This was brought about after the editor of Aftonbladet wrote last month to Charlie McCreevy, the EU Internal Markets Commissioner, asking him to take action against Sweden. The chief editors of both Aftonbladet and Expressen have had a four year long battle after the District Court found them and their newspapers guilty of breaching the Lottery Law by accepting advertisements from foreign gaming operators.
Aftonbladet and Expressen have unswervingly denied any wrong doing always arguing that the country’s ban on advertising by foreign gambling firms is incompatible with Article 12 of the EC Treaty which forbids discrimination on grounds of nationality.
Until now the Supreme Administrative Court, the Court of Appeal and the District Court have decided that the Swedish law was no discriminative against foreign advertising and would not agree to test the nation’s lottery law against EC law directives.
In June 2007, Sweden was asked to amend its lottery law to comply with article 49 of the EC treaty.
Source: Sweden’s lottery law to be tested – Supreme Court orders
Posted in Lotteries