The judge in the biggest foreign satellite football case to date in England has retired to consider his verdict. A group of 26 licensees from 19 pubs across the country will learn their fate on 4 November at Chester Magistrates. Licensees at the pubs are charged with dishonestly receiving TV transmissions to broadcast English Premier League football via Albanian channel DigitAlb.
The case will be under close scrutiny as the decoder cards originate from outside the EU. Prosecutions against pubs using EU decoder cards are on hold until a landmark case can be heard in the European Courts of Justice.
Only two of the cases began in Chester, two were transferred from courts in Cheshire, and the other 15 cases have been transferred from courts throughout the country — from Ashford in Kent and Torquay in Devon to Barnsley in Yorkshire and Manchester.
All 26 hosts were represented by Paul Dixon of Molesworths Bright Clegg. He said before the case began: “A positive outcome in Chester could well force the FA Premier League to call a halt to all prosecutions of licensees who subscribe to foreign satellite services, regardless of whether they are based in EU or outside the EU.”
(Source: Morning Advertiser)
on Oct 15th, 2009 at 15:08
The FA and BSkyB who are behind these cases are brought because they claim that the FA has licensed the UK rights to Sky TV on a exclusive basis.
This exclusive agreement is against the competition laws of the EU. As long as the court accepts that the UK Copyright Law only prohibits the use of illegal pirate devices then the Pubs will win the case.
The European Court is still to rule on the FA’s use of exclusive contracts for football rights in each country. It is very likely that the ECJ will find that the FA contract with BSkyB is in breach of Article 81 and Article 82 of the Treaty of Rome.
Then BSkyB will face the prospect of other EU based Sports channels being available in the UK and at much lower prices than Sky currently charge customers in the UK.