EU Observer – In the coming weeks, the European Commission is expected to unveil its recommendations on consumer protection and advertising for online gambling.
These recommendations are foreseen in the European Commission’s Action Plan for online gambling which was published in October 2012. Later this year, another recommendation on betting-related match-fixing is expected.
As it is generally the case in consumer goods and services sectors, the industry’s expectations regarding such recommendations are high. Member States share the common objective of protecting consumers. However, the many gambling reforms at national level have yielded different results.
Through its recommendations, the European Commission could unstitch this patchwork of different national approaches and construct a new uniform, European approach able to provide the appropriate levels of protection.
The current lack of outright legislation coupled with the fast evolving environment of online gambling has resulted in self-regulation initiatives.
The European Committee for Standardization (CEN), which is in charge of developing and defining voluntary standards at European level, set up a workshop agreement in 2011 on “Responsible Remote Gambling Measures”.
