Advocate General Maciej Szpunar issued the opinion at the request of the Budapest Administrative and Labour Court in a case brought by online gaming company Unibet, based in Malta, contesting decisions by Hungarian authorities to block its local sites for unlicensed activity.

Unibet argued that Hungarian rules on licencing are so exclusionary that they violate the principle of freedom to provide services enshrined in the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union.

Szpunar argued that economic players established in another member state may not be penalised for violating rules in another that impede the acquisition of an operating licence by being “either discriminatory or lacking the requirements of proportionality or transparency”.

Republished with permission of Hungary Matters, MTI’s daily newsletter.