-THE RECORD
Our assignor was one of the users of a famous online betting page, which was based in United Kingdom and had an official permission to run in Greece.
After several successive bets that our assignor had proceeded during the first 6 months from his registration, the amount of money that he had gathered in his account linked to the betting page was over 7.700,00€.
However, without any reason or cause and not based on any legal frame, the betting company blocked the account of our assignor, without notice and by tethering the hole amount of money that he had gathered throughout these months, moreover worth mentioning is that the amount of money could be transferred on any given time to a bank account of his liking, so he could cash them out.
When our client asked the employees of the betting company about the status of his account, they answered that his account was in a procedure of verification and he should send them specific documentation in order to give him access and be active again. Our client sent them within 2 days all the needed documents, however the betting company continued to keep inactive his account for months, without giving him any more details and depriving from him his right to cash out all the money that he had won.
Our law office analyzing all the facts which composed the record of the case and by proceeding to the proper assessments of the evidence, which was brought by our client and by the Administrative Authorities, immediately acted all the suitable legal movements in order to fully satisfy our requests by reclaiming to the max the current legislative framework not only of the Greek legal order but from the European Union as well.
As a result, the betting company few days later unlocked and activated the account of our client by releasing the entire amount of money that he had won; what’s more, they transferred it to his bank account by fulfilling the lawfulness request of attributing the profits, by fear of the consequences that the betting company would encounter if they did not comply with the legal rights of our assignor.
-THE GENERAL BEHAVIOR OF THE BETTING COMPANIES AGAINST THEIR USERS / CONSUMERS
Unfortunately it is not the first time, especially in Greece, that betting companies treat their customers in such a way. The fact that the headquarters of such companies, which are fully licensed, are across borders (usually based on Malta and United Kingdom), have created to the users insecurity, because they believe that if they want to claim their rights, which sometimes are obviously transgressed, they should sue them to the courts of the country where the company is based.
The majority of the users ignore the state of law in such situations but they should be informed that the law is very specific and it states that if the recipient of the services is based in Greece and the company provide them to the users, the conflict can be judged by Greek courtrooms and the Greek law will be applied.
Moreover, the above-mentioned law state does not change, even if the betting company has set exclusively the courtrooms of its headquarters as competent for the settlement of any discrepancy or even if the company has stated that will use the procedure of the arbitration.
Finally, the fact that betting companies are enterprises with great financial impact to the society because they have a wide variety of personnel who constitute them in all the job fields and due to the fact that they can use all the latest technological resources, they are in a superior position on the relationship with their users-consumers. This is the reason why, when the Administrative Authorities or the Judicial Authorities will be called to judge such differences, should be extremely strict about cases of infringement of the citizens rights.
