Your Blog is a Newspaper

The Court of Appeal of Catania (Sicily) has issued an Interesting decision against the blog "Accadeinsicilia.it" run by a famous Italian historian Carlo Ruta providing (not on a regular basis) information on Sicily. The Court of Catania challenged to Mr. Ruta that the blog was not enrolled in the Court registry as requested by Italian press law in relation to all press material and issued a fine of € 150 against Mr. Ruta.

EU Cookies Directive: Deadline Expired!

It expires today the deadline for the implementation of the so called EU Cookies Directive 2009/136/EC amending, among others, the ePrivacy Directive 2002/58/EC setting out specific privacy-related regulations governing the electronic communications sector.

Geo-location Services on Mobiles - What Privacy Issues?

The Article 29 Working Party (the "WP"), the EU privacy advisory board, has issued an interesting opinion on the data protection issues connected to the provision of geo-location services on smart mobile devices.

Italian Gaming Market: Amazing 1st Quarter Data

The Italian Gambling Authority has now published the data relating to April and the first quarter 2011. 

The growth of the market went beyond any expectation and indeed the aggregate turnover (both online and offline) of the first quarter 2011 was of € 24 bn with an increase of 18.2% if compared to the same period of last year. 

Gaming Licences and Casino Games - Need To Know!

After several articles on the decree governing new Italian remote gaming licenses and casino and cash poker games, I believe it is useful to have a summary of the above to avoid to get lost!

Lighter Privacy Obligations for Italian Companies

The Italian Government has recently approved a decree amending some of relevant provisions of the Italian Privacy Code aimed at simplifying the privacy obligations for Italian businesses.

VLT’s Registry: What Tax Consequences?

The Italian Videolottery market is growing faster than initially expected. According to the data available on the press, 19,000 VLTs (out of the 57,000 that concessionaires can instal) have been installed so far generating a turnover during the first 3 months of 2011 of € 2.2 billions (i.e. € 1,280 per machine/day) with each VLT awarding on a daily basis € 1,152 in winnings, with profits for the owners of gaming halls of  € 40/50 per machine/day and for the concessionaires of € 50/60 per machine/day.