Case law

  • Case Details
    • National ID: Court of Justice (Sixth Chamber), Judgement C 774/19
    • Member State: European Union
    • Common Name:Personal Exchange International Limited
    • Decision type: Court of Justice decision
    • Decision date: 10/12/2020
    • Court: Court of Justice
    • Subject:
    • Plaintiff:
    • Defendant:
    • Keywords: jurisdiction, consumer contract, consumer concept, online concluded contract, natural person
  • Directive Articles
    Consumer Sales and Guarantees Directive, link Consumer Rights Directive, link Unfair Commercial Practices Directive, link
  • Headnote

    ECLI identifier: ECLI:EU:C:2020:1015


    A natural person concluded with a company, that offers online gambling services established in another Member State, a contract to play poker online. Said contract contained general terms and conditions determined by the company. The user won over 227,000 euros and the company blocked him alleging the violation of the regulations set in the contract. The user filed a lawsuit before the Slovenian courts, claiming consumer status, demanding his winnings. The company applied for the claim to be declared inadmissible, arguing that the user was a professional poker player, which would deprive him of the protection granted to consumers, and that the courts of Malta would therefore have jurisdiction as this is where the company's registered office is located. The Court ruled that the user had neither officially declared such activity nor offered it to third parties as a paid service, reason why he does indeed classify as consumer, even if that person plays the game for a large number of hours per day and receives substantial winnings from that game. On this basis, the competent courts to hear the case are those of the domicile of the user, as a consumer, and not those of the company's registered office.

  • Facts

    A company offering online gambling services (mainly in Slovenia) blocked a user who had won 227,000 euros claiming that he had violated regulations by having an additional account. The user filed a lawsuit before the Slovenian courts, claiming consumer status, demanding his winnings. The company applied for the claim to be declared inadmissible, arguing that the user was a professional poker player, which would deprive him of the protection granted to consumers, and that the courts of Malta would therefore have jurisdiction as this is where the company's registered office is located.

  • Legal issue

    Must Article 15(1) of Regulation No 44/2001 be interpreted as meaning that an online poker playing contract, concluded remotely over the Internet by an individual with a foreign operator of online games and subject to that operator’s general terms and conditions, can also be classified as a contract concluded by a consumer for a purpose which can be regarded as being outside his or her trade or profession, where that individual has, for several years, lived off the income thus obtained from playing poker, even though he or she has no formal registration for that type of activity and does not offer that activity to third parties on the market as a paid service?

  • Decision

    The Court ruled that Article 15(1) of Council Regulation (EC) No 44/2001 must be interpreted as meaning that a natural person domiciled in a Member State who, first, has concluded with a company established in another Member State a contract to play poker on the Internet, containing general terms and conditions determined by that company, and, secondly, has neither officially declared such activity nor offered it to third parties as a paid service, does not lose the status of a ‘consumer’ within the meaning of that provision, even if that person plays the game for a large number of hours per day and receives substantial winnings from that game.

    Full text: Full text

  • Related Cases

    No results available

  • Legal Literature

    No results available

  • Result

    A natural person domiciled in a Member State who, first, has concluded with a company established in another Member State a contract to play poker on the Internet, containing general terms and conditions determined by that company, and, secondly, has neither officially declared such activity nor offered it to third parties as a paid service, does not lose the status of a ‘consumer’, even if that person plays the game for a large number of hours per day and receives substantial winnings from that game.