The Vice President of the European Parliament, Victor Negrescu, has proposed a harmonized tax on iGaming across all European Union countries.The measure would impose a...
EU court to allow freezing offshore operator bank accounts
On March 5, 2026, Advocate General Rimvydas Norkus from the Court of Justice of the European Union clarified that it’s possible that authorities will be allowed to freeze the bank accounts of offshore gambling operators when the company is subjected to insolvency proceedings outside of the EU.
After a German citizen won an enforceable judgment from the Frankfurt Regional Court, an operator licensed in Curaçao was ordered to return around €57,000 in losses, after which the claimant wanted authorities to identify any bank accounts of the operator held in other EU countries in order to freeze the funds under the European Account Preservation Order.
The proceedings raised a legal question of whether insolvency started in a non-EU country but recognized by an EU member state can stop the use of the European procedure for freezing bank accounts.
Advocate General Norkus argued that the exclusion shouldn’t immediately be applied to insolvency proceedings that started in countries outside the EU, explaining that European regulations on freezing accounts refer to procedures managed by EU law and initiated in EU states. For this case, the proceedings started in Curaçao, which is considered a third country, meaning that decisions made in these jurisdictions don’t fall within the automatic recognition system. According to him, insolvency proceedings in a third country shouldn’t prevent an EU Member State court from issuing a European Account Preservation Order.
The Advocate General’s decision isn’t binding, but it often shows how the Court may rule in the end, and if it agrees, then the decision could have a big influence on the iGaming industry.
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