Premier League TV Rights Case Raises Serious Intellectual Property Issues
- Michael Forrester- Business Litigation Solicitor
The decision of the Court of Justice of the European Union (“ECJ”) released today is the outcome expected, but may have far reaching consequences comments Michael Forrester of Ralli’s iSolicitors team.
These cases concerned the screening of live premier league football matches in pubs through foreign decoder cards, issued by a Greek broadcaster to subscribers resident in Greece, to access Premier League matches.
The pubs buy a card and a decoder box from a dealer at prices lower than those of Sky, the holder of the broadcasting rights in the United Kingdom.
The first case concerns a civil action brought by the Premier League against pubs that have screened Premier League matches by using Greek decoder cards and against the suppliers of such decoder cards to those pubs.
The second case arose from criminal proceedings against Karen Murphy, the landlady of a pub that screened Premier League matches using a Greek decoder card. In those two cases, the High Court of Justice of England and Wales has referred a number of questions concerning the interpretation of European Union law to the Court of Justice.
Crucially, the ECJ held that: Read more »
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Intellectual Property, Media | Ralli | 
October 4, 2011 4:15 pm | 
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