Cases C-403/08 and C-429/08 FA Premier League Ltd and Others v QC Leisure and Others; and Karen Murphy v Media Protection Services Ltd, 4 Oct 2011

Abstract

The FA Premier League (“FAPL”) runs Premier League football in England. FAPL’s activities include commercially exploiting the associated broadcasting rights. In maximising the value of the broadcasting rights to its member clubs, FAPL grants licences in respect of these rights for live transmission on a territorial basis and for three-year terms. In order to protect the territorial exclusivity of all broadcasters, they each undertake, in their licence agreement with FAPL, not to supply decoding devices that allow their broadcasts to be decrypted for the purpose of being used outside the territory for which they hold the licence. In the UK, certain restaurants and bars began to use foreign decoding devices to access Premier League matches. FAPL took the view that such activities were harmful to its interests because they undermined the exclusivity of the rights granted by licence in a given territory and hence the value of those rights. Consequently, FAPL and others brought, in Case C-403/08, what they consider to be three test cases before the High Court in England and Wales. Two of the actions were against suppliers (QC Leisure, AV Station etc.) to public houses of equipment and satellite decoder cards that enabled the reception of programmes of foreign broadcasters, including NOVA. The third action was brought against the operators of four public houses that screened live Premier League matches by using a foreign decoding device. In Case C-429/08, Ms Murphy, the manager of a public house in Portsmouth, procured a NOVA decoder card to screen Premier League matches. Ms Murphy was subsequently convicted of two offences under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. Ms Murphy brought an appeal by way of case stated before the High Court of Justice, taking a position similar to that adopted by QC Leisure. In both proceedings, the High Court in England and Wales decided to stay proceedings and to refer a series of questions to the CJEU for preliminary ruling. The referred questions, the ruling of the CJEU and its implications are discussed below. These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.

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