Gambling Left Out Of European Consumer Rights Directive

Recently, the European Commission introduced the draft for a very important document - the Consumer Rights Directive - which is set to specify guidelines for businesses in order to have the rights and interests of consumers protected.

This directive is particularly important as it sets out a unified policy for all member states that make up the European Union.

The Remote Gambling Association (RGA), which is made up a large number of European based online gambling operators, including publicly listed groups, was keen to see the Consumer Rights Directive created as it meant that online gambling consumers would finally have their interests protected through an official policy.

The directive had the potential to see issues such as underage and problem gambling monitored by national governments who signed this documents, and would have complemented national regulatory authorities.

Some Member States Back Down

The RGA was disappointed to discover that a number of member states had voiced their objections to having gambling included in the Consumer Rights Directive, probably so as to save their own state controlled online gambling groups from having extra responsibilities as spelled out by the directive.

The Chief Executive of the Remote Gambling Association, Clive Hawkswood, issued a press release, attacking the decision to exclude online gambling from the directive.

"We are truly disappointed by the exclusion of gambling from the scope of the Consumer Rights Directive," read the statement, "which shows, once again, that some Member States will do anything to protect their own gambling monopolies, also at the expense of consumers."

"It is particularly disturbing that the same parties that falsely accuse the European private sector online gambling industry of not wanting regulation actually do their utmost to avoid any EU obligation," he said.