French Regulator Says Review Forced Licensees To Fix Dubious T&Cs

French gambling licensees have corrected ambiguous and sometimes illegal clauses found in terms and conditions, following a National Gambling Authority (ANJ) review, the authority has said.

Following consumer complaints to the regulator and the gambling mediator, the ANJ decided to review the contractual documents of all licensed online operators, the ANJ said on Tuesday (March 26).

Problems found by the regulator during the review included:

• Clauses partially or fully exclude liability by the operator, therefore, restricting a player’s rights to compensation in case of consumer law violations.
• Passages hindering the exercise of legal action by players, such as improper requirements to refer a dispute to courts other than the jurisdiction where the player lives.
• Terms restricting means of proof available to consumers.
• Clauses shorten the period in which players can assert their rights against the operator to less than five years.
• Clauses allow the operator to limit gamblers’ bets without supplying a legitimate reason.

Limiting bets without providing a legitimate reason can be considered a deceptive commercial practice, the authority said.

Legitimate reasons can include prevention of excessive or addictive gambling and the protection of minors; the fight against fraud, money laundering, or terrorist financing; or the operator’s financial exposure.

Players cannot be restricted in France for commercial reasons, for example, because they win too many bets, as is the case in some other markets, including the UK.

The completed review “does not constitute validation by the ANJ”, the regulator said. “In fact, the operators remain solely responsible for drafting the contractual documentation, which is not intended to be standardised.” 

The gambling mediator considers disputes between players and licensees and is appointed to a three-year term by the chair of the authority.

In the UK, the Gambling Commission and the Competition and Markets Authority combined to review what they considered to be terms and conditions that violated consumer law, as part of a three-year investigation.

The investigation, which ended in 2019, led to undertakings on permissible bonuses, deposit withdrawals and what constitutes fair terms and conditions.