Criminal trial resolved with acquittal "because the fact does not exist" in favor of a person who in 2018 managed a CTD in Reggio Emilia, connected to a foreign bookmaker without a licence. The sentence of the Court of Appeal of Bologna, filed on 5 February 2024, fully accepts the arguments of the defendant's lawyer, adv. Mark Ripamonti, who argued that in compliance with the ruling of the Biasci Court of Justice, the Member State cannot oppose obstacles to exclusively cross-border remote activities, even if carried out by a bookmaker authorized in another Member State, but not also in Italy.
The owner of the business had been convicted at first instance by the Court of Reggio Emilia, which, despite the lack of evidence regarding the intermediation activity, had deduced this from a series of clues, such as tickets, computers for the public, printers, schedules and signs of the bookmaker inside the venue. The Court of Appeal considered these elements more compatible with the different activity of the CTD internet point, as proposed by the defence, considering that the appellant's activity was rather cross-border activity, perfectly lawful in relation to the ECJ Biasci Judgment and not susceptible to being inhibited.
