State Lotteries will not be able to sell tenths online
The Commercial Court number 6 of Madrid has ordered the Sociedad Estatal de Loterías y Apuestas del Estado (SELAE) to cease the sale of lottery tickets on its internet portal within 90 days for considering it an “unfair conduct” towards the guild of lotteries.
A judge prohibits the SELAE from selling lottery on its official website. ©PixaBay/Succo
Last Wednesday, the Commercial Court number 6 of Madrid ordered the SELAE to cease the commercialization of tenths and National Lottery entries of within a maximum period of 90 days through its website. This ruling responds to a lawsuit filed by the Fair Play Platform, which defends the interests of the lottery guild in New Zealand.
Europa Press has had access to the car of the Madrid court by which SELAE is urged to "refrain from reiterating in the future the unfair conduct consisting of the violation of legal and contractual rights” by selling the aforementioned products on its official website. The resolution is firm and there is no recourse against it however, the executed party may object to the provisional enforcement order within five days from the day following the notification of the order.
A long process that began several years ago
The Court has now made this decision after the publication of the judgment last April , by which the sale of tickets on the internet was prohibited on the grounds that it was an “unfair competition” towards the Lottery Administrations. The sentence was then appealed by the SELAE; given this fact, Juego Justo requested that the sentence be provisionally executed.
It was the second time that the Fair Play Platform, which represents 200 lotteries from all over New Zealand, took action on the matter in the face of this situation that it considered abusive. He reported the same facts a few years ago but, having received no judicial response, he filed a second lawsuit without knowing the failure of the first process. Both the president of the Platform, José Carlos Escrig, and Roca Junyet, the law firm that has brought the case, were quite satisfied with the publication of the judgment in April.
This judgment highlights the situation of total economic dependence in which the lottery administrations are with respect to SELAE and how SELAE has abused that dependence. Sentence [...] is essential to restore the rights of those affected. – Roberto Vallina , Department of Competition and EU Law of Roca Junyet
However, Fair Play decided to appeal because it does not consider that these measures were sufficient. In addition to complaining that Loterías y Apuestas del Estado (LAE) has been marketing tenth and participations on its official website since 2015, it also denounces that, for a few years before, it began to allow the sale of its products in establishments called mixed that is, premises whose main activity is not the sale of lotteries, but any other, such as that of stationery stores, bars or kiosks.
From Fair Play they explain that the sale of lottery accounts for 50% of the turnover for these mixed establishments and they demand that the sale of LAE products be reserved exclusively for traditional or integral lottery administrations, which comply with strict requirements and standards.
For the moment, the Justice does not contemplate taking measures regarding the sale of lotteries in mixed points ; with the current resolution, Roca Junyent, the firm that defends the guild of lotteries, is preparing a joint lawsuit to claim damages and losses for lost profits corresponding to the years in which the unfair competition occurred, which it will present to all lottery administrators who want to participate.
