Cobalt’s Riga office has successfully represented SIA Latsson Licensing, the owner of online gaming platform Betsafe Latvia, before the Constitutional Court of Latvia regarding the restrictions on its provision of interactive gaming services during a state of emergency.
According to Cobalt, “following the declaration of a nation-wide state of emergency due to the outbreak of COVID-19 and with the aim to protect persons and their families from unnecessary expenditure and deterioration of their financial situation during an economic downturn, in March 2020 the Latvian Parliament imposed restrictions not only on the operation of land-based gaming venues, but also on the provision of online gaming services.” According to the firm, “having doubts regarding such restriction’s compliance with the constitutional principle of legitimate expectations and the right to property, SIA Latsson Licensing, together with a number of other gaming operators, applied before the Constitutional Court.”
Cobalt stated that as the result of Latsson Licensing’s application, “on December 11, 2020, the Constitutional Court handed down a judgment in case No. 2020-26-0106, holding that Article 9 of the Law ‘On the Compliance of Articles 8 and 9 of the Law ‘…, insofar it imposed an obligation to suspend licenses for the provision of online gaming services, is incompatible with the principle of legitimate expectations inherent in Article 1 of the Constitution, in conjunction with the right to property enshrined in Article 105 of the Constitution.”
According to the firm, “as ruled by the Constitutional Court, a person’s right to freedom of self-determination shall have the highest value in a democratic state governed by the rule of law…even during a nation-wide state of emergency the legislator shall not adopt unreasonably vague provisions that restrict the rights of such persons that are not even the subject of the legislator’s-imposed restrictions’ legitimate aim.”
Cobalt’s team included Managing Partner Lauris Liepa and Associate Toms Krumins.
