Polymarket Challenges France's Geographic Block in Court

The prediction market operator Polymarket has decided to face in court the ban imposed by the French National Gaming Authority (ANJ) this month. Despite having stopped accepting transactions from France in November 2024, Polymarket continued to allow access to French IP addresses, which led the ANJ to block the site for encouraging the use of VPNs to circumvent the transaction ban.

Legal Challenge Against the ANJ

Polymarket expressed its discontent with the ANJ's decision through a statement, affirming its intention to legally challenge the block. "We are disappointed with the ANJ's unilateral decision to block our website," said Polymarket. "We intend to contest this decision through a legal process in France." This move comes in a context of increasing scrutiny towards Polymarket and other U.S. operators by European regulators.

Regulation in the European Union

The ANJ's measure follows similar actions in other European Union countries. Recently, the Irish gaming regulator completely blocked access to a prediction market provider and announced measures against another. Actions have also been taken against Polymarket in Spain, the Netherlands, and Belgium. These moves reflect a growing trend in Europe to regulate prediction markets.

Prediction Markets Under Scrutiny

The ANJ's decision arises amid investigations into prediction markets in France. In April, Météo France filed a complaint following an anomalous increase in temperature near one of its sensors, coinciding with a surge in contracts supporting that increase on Polymarket. Currently, the platform offers around 500 markets related to events in France, from weather to domestic politics.

Concerns About VPN Use and Addiction

Jean-Baptiste Vila, Dean of the Law Faculty at the University of French Polynesia, highlighted that the 2024 ban was "regularly violated." French traders have found ways to circumvent geolocation, a practice that has become common. In June, the ANJ warned that the platform gained 578,751 visits with 205,057 unique visitors.

Use of Polymarket as an Information Source

Polymarket insists that its platform is used by the French primarily as an information source and not for transactions. "We were surprised by the ANJ's decision because our site is used to know the probability of relevant future events," Polymarket explained. Additionally, the operator stated it is in dialogue with the cybercrime unit of the Paris Prosecutor's Office.

Significant Trading Ahead of Elections

In February, a French trader interviewed by France Info confessed to using a VPN to trade political contracts worth tens of thousands of dollars. Polymarket has seen a volume of $116 million in contracts regarding the 2027 presidential elections. Many of these contracts back Marine Le Pen, head of the National Rally.

Polymarket remains committed to operating according to regulatory expectations and continues to leverage the advantages of prediction markets.