7.3.2009 |
EN |
Official Journal of the European Union |
C 55/18 |
Reference for a preliminary ruling from the Cour d'appel de Liège (Belgium) lodged on 29 December 2008 — Real Madrid Football Club, Zinedine Zidane, David Beckham, Raul Gonzalez Blanco, Ronaldo Luiz Nazario de Lima, Luis Filipe Madeira Caeiro, Futebol Club Do Porto S.A.D., Victor Baia, Ricardo Costa, Diego Ribas da Cunha, P.S.V. N.V., Imari BV, Juventus Football Club SPA v Sporting Exchange Ltd, William Hill Credit Limited, Victor Chandler (International) Ltd, BWIN International Ltd (Betandwin), Ladbrokes Betting and Gaming Ltd, Ladbroke Belgium S.A., Internet Opportunity Entertainment Ltd, Global Entertainment Ltd (Unibet)
(Case C-584/08)
(2009/C 55/29)
Language of the case: French
Referring court
Cour d'appel de Liège
Parties to the main proceedings
Appellants: Real Madrid Football Club, Zinedine Zidane, David Beckham, Raul Gonzalez Blanco, Ronaldo Luiz Nazario de Lima, Luis Filipe Madeira Caeiro, Futebol Club Do Porto S.A.D., Victor Baia, Ricardo Costa, Diego Ribas da Cunha, P.S.V. N.V., Imari BV, Juventus Football Club SPA
Respondents: Sporting Exchange Ltd, William Hill Credit Limited, Victor Chandler (International) Ltd, BWIN International Ltd (Betandwin), Ladbrokes Betting and Gaming Ltd, Ladbroke Belgium S.A., Internet Opportunity Entertainment Ltd, Global Entertainment Ltd (Unibet)
Questions referred
The questions relate to the interpretation to be given, in the specific field of the internet, to Article 5(3) of Council Regulation (EC) No 44/2001 of 22 December 2000 on jurisdiction and the recognition and enforcement of judgments in civil and commercial matters (1).
Where, as in the present case, the alleged harm is caused by websites and
(a) |
none of the companies being sued, which run the websites in question, has its company seat in Belgium, |
(b) |
none of the websites in question is hosted in Belgium, |
(c) |
none of the claimants is domiciled in Belgium, |
(d) |
the betting websites are available to Belgian internet users, who can place their bets on those sites, to the same extent as they are available to internet users in other contracting States since they are ‘.com’ websites which have the purpose of extending their market to the whole of Europe, and they do not have the extension ‘.be’ which is specific to Belgium, |
(e) |
those websites are available in a number of languages without the two most commonly used languages in Belgium always being among them, |
(f) |
those websites offer, inter alia, bets on Belgian matches, in the same way as for foreign championships, |
(g) |
the use of a particular technology or canvassing technique aimed at the Belgian public has not been proved, |
(h) |
the number of bets placed by the Belgian public is entirely marginal in comparison with the total number of bets taken by those sites, since, according to the figures submitted by the bookmaking companies for 2005, which were not disputed, all the Belgian betting on football matches represents less than 0.25 % of the bets taken on the websites ‘bwin.com’, ‘willhill.com’, ‘betfair.com’, ‘ladbrokes.com’, ‘sportingbet’, and ‘miapuesta’, while ‘vcbet.com’ refers to 40 Belgian bettors among all the bets placed with it,
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