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Karen Murphy scores against the Premier League and Sky

In the view of Advocate General Kokott, territorial exclusivity agreements relating to the transmission of football matches are contrary to European Union law.

In the view of Advocate General Kokott, territorial exclusivity
published on UK Free TV

European Union law does not make it possible to prohibit the live transmission of Premier League football matches in pubs by means of foreign decoder cards

The Football Association Premier League Ltd (the FAPL) is the marketing organisation for the top English football league. The FAPL essentially grants its licensees the exclusive right to broadcast matches and exploit them economically within their respective broadcasting areas, generally the country in question. In order to safeguard this exclusivity, licensees are obliged to prevent their broadcasts from being able to be viewed outside their respective broadcasting areas. To that end, each licensee is required to encrypt its satellite signal and to transmit it in encrypted form to subscribers within its assigned territory. Subscribers can decrypt the signal using a decoder, which requires a decoder card. The exclusivity agreement also imposes restrictions on the circulation of authorised decoder cards outside the territory of each licensee.

The main proceedings in the present references for preliminary rulings concern attempts to circumvent this exclusivity. Companies import decoder cards from abroad, in the present proceedings from Greece, into the United Kingdom and offer them to pubs at more favourable prices than the broadcaster in that State. This practice makes it possible for pubs in the UK to show the live transmission of Premier League football matches using a Greek decoder card. The FAPL is attempting to stop that practice by means of a judicial ruling. Case C-403/08 concerns civil-law actions brought by the FAPL against the use of foreign decoder cards. Case C-429/08 relates to criminal proceedings which have been brought against the landlady of a pub who used a Greek decoder card to show Premier League matches. The High Court has, in each set of proceedings, referred several questions to the Court of Justice on the interpretation of EU law.

Advocate General Juliane Kokott explains that the exclusivity rights in question have the effect of partitioning the internal market into quite separate national markets, something which constitutes a serious impairment of the freedom to provide services.

With regard to possible justification for the restriction of the freedom to provide services, the Advocate General examines the protection of industrial and commercial property and, in particular, addresses the question whether live satellite transmissions of football matches involve rights the specific subject-matter of which requires a partitioning of the internal market. In this connection she first states that the specific subject-matter of the rights in live football transmissions lies in their commercial exploitation. In the present cases, the live transmission of Premier League football matches is exploited, in particular, through the charge imposed for the decoder cards. Advocate General Kokott takes the view in this connection that the economic exploitation of the rights in question is not undermined by the use of foreign decoder cards, as the corresponding charges have been paid for those cards. Whilst those charges are not as high as the charges imposed in the United Kingdom, there is, according to the Advocate General, no specific right to charge different prices for a work in each Member State. Rather, it forms part of the logic of the internal market that price differences between different Member States should be offset by trade. The marketing of broadcasting rights on the basis of territorial exclusivity is tantamount to profiting from the elimination of the internal market. Consequently, the specific subject-matter of the rights in the transmission of football matches does not justify a partitioning of the internal market, and thus also does not justify the resulting restriction of the freedom to provide services.

Advocate General Kokott further takes the view that the contractual restriction on using decoder cards in the State of origin only for domestic or private use, but not for commercial use – for which a higher subscription charge is payable – also cannot justify a territorial restriction of the freedom to provide services. The Member State concerned may, however, in principle make provision for rights which allow authors to object to the communication of their works in pubs.

So far as concerns the question whether the showing of live transmissions of football matches in pubs infringes the exclusive right of communication to the public of protected works within the terms of the Copyright in the Information Society Directive, the Advocate General explains that, as EU law stands at present, there are no comprehensive rights which protect the communication of a broadcast to the public where no entrance fee is charged.

Advocate General Kokott further expresses the view that the application of the principle of the freedom to provide services is also in line with the Satellite and Cable Directive and with European competition law. Equally, neither does the Conditional Access Directive constitute a barrier to the use of foreign decoder cards.

NOTE: The Advocate General’s Opinion is not binding on the Court of Justice. It is the role of the Advocates General to propose to the Court, in complete independence, a legal solution to the cases for which they are responsible. The Judges of the Court are now beginning their deliberations in the present cases. Judgment will be given at a later date.

NOTE: A reference for a preliminary ruling allows the courts and tribunals of the Member States, in disputes which have been brought before them, to refer questions to the Court of Justice about the interpretation of European Union law or the validity of a European Union act. The Court of Justice does not decide the dispute itself. It is for the national court or tribunal to dispose of the case in accordance with the Court’s decision, which is similarly binding on other national courts or tribunals before which a similar issue is raised



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Comments
Monday, 7 February 2011
R
Richard
2:04 AM
Peterborough

You mean £20/month for sports (all-in) surely??

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Richard's 20 posts GB flag
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Briantist
sentiment_very_satisfiedOwner

7:50 AM

Richard: But you have to pay for NDS Datacom (which just happens to be part of Newscorp) for the encryption system, and the "free dish, box and installation" cross-subsidy.

The true costs are hidden by the pricing structure. All totally legally, of course.

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Briantist's 38,915 posts GB flag
J
Jordy
sentiment_satisfiedGold

2:26 PM

Brian - Are you saying the concept of 'spot-beaming' programming into a specific market is illegal? Curious to me is how the Irish are launching Saorsat on the principal of spot-beaming to maintain their rights problems. All future birds will have that capability and along with that will come DVB-S2 dual transponders so yes it will drive up the cost of receiving equipment...

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Jordy's 1,827 posts GB flag
Briantist
sentiment_very_satisfiedOwner

2:29 PM

Jordy: Yes, the ruling certainly says that the EU is a single market and 'spot-beaming' is against the rules as 'single country' rights are illegal.

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Briantist's 38,915 posts GB flag
S
Steve
sentiment_satisfiedBronze

2:42 PM

This is the important bit:
"The marketing of broadcasting rights on the basis of territorial exclusivity is tantamount to profiting from the elimination of the internal market. Consequently, the specific subject-matter of the rights in the transmission of football matches does not justify a partitioning of the internal market, and thus also does not justify the resulting restriction of the freedom to provide services."
In other words, whoever is selling the Greek decoder cards has a right to sell them in any country in the EU and the end user has the right to use them to watch football matches.
Sky will no doubt have some clever lawyers working on a solution as we speak, but so far it looks like a victory for the single market.

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Steve's 59 posts GB flag
Briantist
sentiment_very_satisfiedOwner

2:52 PM

Steve: Sky has over 200 lawyers on it's books already. And they have failed. Like they did trying to get the BBC to encrypt and pay Sky £60m.

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Briantist's 38,915 posts GB flag
S
Steve
4:29 PM

Briantist: Yes, this is actually quite interesting from a legal point of view. Copyright law enables the rights holder (The Premier League in this case) to restrict broadcasting within different territories, for example the banning of showing live matches on Saturday afternoons in the UK, but EU competition law states that consumers can buy services from anywhere within the EU so that with a Greek decoder card a pub in the UK can show live Premier League matches on a Saturday afternoon. The ECJ have refused so far to get involved with football but it looks as though they have finally decided to have a go.

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Steve's 1 post GB flag
J
james
sentiment_satisfiedBronze

4:37 PM

hi be soon radio time on freeview teletext

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james's 49 posts GB flag
Briantist
sentiment_very_satisfiedOwner

4:38 PM

Steve: I still don't get why the "live match" restriction exists.

It seems bizarre in a country that claims to have provided "free markets" to the world via the likes of Adam Smith, where we outlaw all cartel and monopolistic behaviour.

And then make an exception for "football" on the grounds it is the "national game".

Now Sky is worth over £13bn largely on the back of this "legal cartel".

I would say Maggie Thatcher would be spinning in her grave, but she's not there yet.

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Briantist's 38,915 posts GB flag
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