Cross-border Debt Recovery Blog
by Marco Sposini
Laywer, Milan Bar Association
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The Court of Justice on Article 1(2)(d) and Article 4(1) of Regulation (EC) No 864/2007 (Rome II)
15 January 2026
The Court of Justice of the European Union, by judgment ECLI:EU:C:2026:1, dated 15 January 2026, in Case C‑77/24 [Wunner] – in proceedings between, on the one hand, NM and OU, in their capacity as the directors of a Maltese gambling company, and, on the other, TE, a person domiciled in Austria, concerning the recovery of losses incurred in connection with participation in online games of chance that that company offered in Austria without holding the licence required under the law of that Member State – ruled that:
1. Article 1(2)(d) of Regulation (EC) No 864/2007 on the law applicable to non-contractual obligations must be interpreted as meaning that an action seeking to establish tortious liability, aimed at the directors of a company, for infringement of a prohibition imposed by national legislation on offering games of chance to the public without holding a licence for that purpose is not covered by the category of non-contractual obligations arising out of the law of companies, within the meaning of that provision.
2. Article 4(1) of Regulation No 864/2007 must be interpreted as meaning that, in the context of an action for damages for losses incurred when participating in online games of chance offered by a company in a Member State in which that company did not hold the required licence, the damage sustained by a player must be deemed to have occurred in the Member State in which that player is habitually resident.
The text is available here