Polymarket to take legal action against France due to countrywide ban

Polymarket said on Wednesday that it will fight France’s decision to cut off access to its website, taking the country’s gambling regulator to court over the banning of its platform, even though the company claims it stopped serving French customers more than a year ago.

Website ban ordered ahead of World Cup final

The order to block Polymarket access in France came from France’s National Gambling Authority, known by its French initials ANJ. The body instructed the country’s internet service providers to shut off access to Polymarket last week.

This came just before the World Cup final, and the regulator moved to block access even though Polymarket had switched off trading for French users well over a year earlier.

In its statement, the ANJ pointed to two concerns, stating that the platform could saddle users with heavy losses and that some of the listed contracts are open to manipulation. On Friday, the regulator went further, describing the site as one that “is promoting an illegal gambling and betting offering.”

Polymarket disagrees with reasons for ban

Polymarket has completely objected to the ANJ’s reasons for the ban and drawn on a distinction the ANJ is said to have ignored. It says it has barred French users from trading on the platform since November 2024, but kept the site available to them as an “information source.”

“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. The prediction market platform also framed its case around the idea that “prediction markets help source truth,” saying most visitors come to gauge the odds on real-world events, and not just to gamble and place bets.

However, the French regulator says the site shows live odds even in view-only mode, which is basically advertising an unlicensed gambling product. The ANJ backed the point with web traffic figures, with Similarweb data recording 578,751 visits from 205,057 unique French visitors in June alone.

France increases prediction market regulation

The fight fits a global pattern of increased regulation against prediction markets. Spain temporarily banned both Polymarket and its larger rival Kalshi in May, and in June, the US CFTC put out a fresh set of proposed rules aimed at the prediction markets sector.

Polymarket and Kalshi have grown into the two largest platforms in the sector, each carrying multibillion-dollar valuations. Their success has seen matching scrutiny, though, as critics argue that the platforms are basically gambling given another name, with regulators in Europe and several US states moving to rein them in.

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