Polymarket is taking France's national gambling authority to court after the regulator ordered internet providers to cut access to its website last week, just days before the World Cup final. The company says the block is unjust because it stopped allowing French users to trade on the platform back in November 2024, more than a year before ANJ pulled the trigger.
What ANJ actually ordered and why
France's Autorité Nationale des Jeux issued the blocking order citing two specific concerns: the risk of heavy financial losses for users and the potential for some listed contracts to be manipulated. By Friday, the regulator had gone further, publicly describing Polymarket as a site "promoting an illegal gambling and betting offering." ISPs across France were instructed to comply with the shutdown, effectively making the platform unreachable from the country.
The timing raised eyebrows. ANJ moved against the site right before the World Cup final, when prediction markets around the event were drawing heavy traffic globally. Critics read that as a politically convenient moment to act.
Polymarket's argument in court
The company's legal challenge rests on a distinction ANJ reportedly chose to ignore. Polymarket says French users have been locked out of trading since November 2024, but the site itself remained accessible as a read-only information source, letting visitors check odds without placing a single bet. Blocking the whole domain, the company argues, punishes people who are simply browsing publicly available data.
"We were therefore surprised at the ANJ decision to block access to our entire website because their measure targets people going to Polymarket purely for information, not to trade," the company said in its statement Wednesday.
The regulator, for its part, counters that displaying live odds in view-only mode still constitutes a form of gambling promotion under French law, regardless of whether real money changes hands. That interpretation is now the crux of what French courts will have to decide. Polymarket has framed the broader case around the idea that prediction markets serve a truth-sourcing function, with most visitors coming to read probabilities on real-world events rather than to wager.
This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute financial or legal advice.
