Lotto, the revocation of the concession is illegitimate
The revocation of the lottery game concessions is illegitimate in event of minimum and isolated defaulting in the payment of the gaming proceeds
Last week, the Council of State accepted the appeal filed against the Customs and Monopoly Agency by a lottery office based on Montelanico (Rome), asking for the reform of the sentence of the Regional Administrative Court for Lazio which had confirmed the revocation of the concession for delay in the payment of gaming proceeds. According to the judges of Palazzo Spada, the contested measures were adopted, as also noted in the sentence of the Lazio TAR, "in the name of the power conferred on the Administration by art. 34, paragraph 1, point 9 of the law of 22 December 1957, n. 1293 (applicable to the concessions of the lottery game pursuant to art. 6 of the law n. 85/1990) ", according to which " the Administration can proceed with the termination of the contract control or the revocation of the management of resales, among other things, in the event of (….) habitual violation of the rules relating to the management and operation of resales ", as well as in implementation" of the concession contract signed by the receiver ", which in art. 2 paragraph 4 establishes that "Failure to pay within 5 days of receipt of the registered letter with return receipt. with which the fulfillment is intimated involves the revocation of the concession, also pursuant to art. 1454 of the Italian Civil Code ". However, the Council of State, in the above judgement, highlights that, based on the aforementioned legislation, this habit "occurs when, after three transgressions of the same nature committed within two years, the retailer commits another one, even of the same nature, in the six months following the last of the previous violations" and that this rule "expresses an assessment of the gravity and proportionality linked to the number of violations found, regardless of their amount ". Consequently, as the judges of Palazzo Spada conclude, "Must be taken as a parameter not the number of violations ascertained, but their actual and objective negative value" and, therefore, the contested revocation measure must be annulled because "it is affected by excess power due to diversion from the typical cause", which consists in "hitting with the greatest possible rigor and with the most afflictive of sanctions (revocation of the concession) cases bearing other severity and disvalue, such as those relating to omitted payments for large amounts with consequent shortfalls in the balances and significant damage to the Treasury".