Experiences and Consequences of the Hungarian Online Gambling Litigations (2013–2018)

Abstract

In the wake of the re-regulations of the Hungarian remote gambling concession and licensing regime in 2013 and 2014, mass litigations were commenced primarily on EU law basis. Hungarian courts demonstrated significant experience in the practical application of the EU law in terms of weighing the EU law relevance of the cases, commencing and managing preliminary ruling procedures, as well as in the management of mass EU law based litigations. Other than establishing the EU law nonconformity of some of the fundamental instruments of the Hungarian legal regime, the outcome of the three preliminary ruling procedures that were commenced during the national litigations holds significance in the development of the European gambling law and also of the law applying to the freedom of establishment and services. The prospective new Hungarian licensing regime, necessary due to the CJEU judgments, has not been compiled yet.