The Civil Court of Florence, with a sentence filed on 22 January 2024, annulled a fine of 20.000 euros, imposed by ADM with an order - injunction issued in 2022, against the owner of an internet point - charging point, who had installed a system of multi-movement Web.
The dispute referred to the year 2017 when, during an inspection, the Customs and Monopolies Agency (ADM) had found the multi-station device connected to the network suitable for creating the connection with the gaming portal also of reference of the dealer with whom the business was contracted as a charging point. Hence the challenge to art.7, paragraph 3 quater of Legislative Decree 13.9.2012, n.158 (so-called Balduzzi legislation). The dispute arose, moreover, from a search operation carried out as part of an ongoing criminal proceeding for crimes related to the illegal collection of games and bets. The owner of the business, assisted by the law firm Marco Ripamonti and Riccardo Ripamonti, with offices in Viterbo and Florence, has lodged an opposition requesting the annulment of the sanction.
The Court accepted the defense's arguments on the basis of the arguments proposed on the merits.
The Florentine judge stated that the Balduzzi legislation cannot be interpreted as an absolute prohibition on the installation of telematic stations, stating instead that he shares the tenor of the Order of 3 October 2023, obtained in another proceeding by the same defender and produced in the case before the Court of Florence, with which the Court of Cassation stated that, for the purposes of imposing the sanction, it must be ascertained whether the connection to the gaming and betting portal is attributable to the operator and not also to the free and conscious choice of the customer. In this regard, the Court of Florence added regarding the burden of proof, nothing was demonstrated by the operators, who limited themselves to seizing without specifying the circumstances and methods of the connection. The Sentence, again with regard to this, also recalled a document coming from ADM and produced by the defense in which it is stated that the ban on the installation of web stations operates only in the case of predispositions for a gaming portal or restricted navigation. Situations that did not emerge in the case in question.
Among the productions carried out by the defence, several rulings of merit recently made in this sense.
