Brussels (AFP)
The French State will have to justify to the European Commission the granting to the Française des Jeux (FDJ), privatized at the end of 2019, of exclusive rights to operate lotteries and sports betting for 25 years, subject to the payment of 380 million. euros.
Brussels announced on Monday that it would open an in-depth investigation into this advantage granted to the main operator of gambling in France, in order to verify whether it could constitute a violation of EU rules on aid to 'State.
The European Commission does not exclude, she said in a press release, that "the measure could provide an undue economic advantage to the Française des Jeux", heir to the national lottery, which in 2019 had recorded a record of 17 billion euros in player bets.
This granting of exclusive rights to the FDJ "concerns the operation on the one hand of lottery games marketed in a physical distribution network and online, and on the other hand of sports betting marketed in a physical distribution network", recalled the Commission.
After having received "two complaints relating to the sum of 380 million euros paid to France by the Française des Jeux, in remuneration of the exclusive rights granted", the Commission decided to verify the conformity of this remuneration "to market conditions ", she explained.
"The opening of an in-depth investigation gives France and all interested parties the opportunity to comment on the measure in question. It does not in any way prejudge the outcome of the investigation," he said. European executive.
This announcement weakened the action of the FDJ on the Paris Stock Exchange: it yielded 3.73% to 47.71 euros, in a market which ended up slightly up 0.15%.
On November 21, 2019, the privatization of the FDJ was immediately placed on the list of the ten largest IPOs carried out in France since the beginning of the century.
Half a million people participated in the subscription.
"The European Commission will look at whether the privilege of being able to organize lotteries and sports betting does or does not constitute State aid," commented Me Alexis Deroudille, lawyer at the Paris bar.
"State aid is highly regulated, and is normally prohibited, except in areas such as the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP)".
- 25 years and 380 million -
"A certain number of jurisprudential criteria make it possible to determine in a rather precise way whether one is in the presence of an illicit State aid or not: is it a discriminatory aid or not? actor? Does it create economic distortions? ", continues the lawyer.
For its part, "the French State will implement all the necessary means to defend its position in the debates raised by the Commission", he underlines.
Asked by AFP, the Ministry of the Economy "takes note of the decision of the European Commission".
"We are totally confident in the way in which this operation was carried out, with prior information from the Commission, and in its legal rigor", he adds.
The FDJ said for its part "take note" of the opening of this investigation which will take several months, while recalling that its registration document of October 17, 2019, prior to its IPO, underlined "the risks of recourse against the texts which allowed its privatization, in particular those resulting from the Pacte law ".
Adopted in April 2019, the Pacte law, which reformed the gambling regime in France, paved the way for a vast asset disposal program and authorized the transfer to the private sector of the majority of the gaming operator's capital. , the French State remaining a minority shareholder.
Within this framework, the FDJ had been entrusted by the French State with the exclusive organization and operation of lottery games and sports betting for a period not exceeding 25 years.
In return, it had to pay 380 million euros to the State.
On Monday, the FDJ recalled that the Council of State had already had to decide in 2020 a request for the purposes of referral to the Constitutional Council in a priority question of constitutionality (QPC) which it rejected on August 19, 2020. In addition , several other appeals are still pending before the Council of State.
aro-kap-ref-mhc / tq / esp
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