Football Association Premier League Ltd and others v QC Leisure and others: C-403/08 and C-429/08, [2011] All ER (D) 26 (Oct)
Court of Justice of the European Union (Grand Chamber), Judges Skouris (President), Tizzano, Cunha Rodrigues, Lenaerts, Bonichot, Arabadjiev and Kasel (Presidents of Chambers), Borg Barthet, Ilesic, Malenovsky (Rapporteur) and Von Danwitz, 4 Oct 2011
The clauses of an exclusive licence agreement concluded between a holder of intellectual property rights and a broadcaster constitute a restriction on competition prohibited by Art 101 of the Treaty of the Functioning of the European Union where they oblige the broadcaster not to supply decoding devices enabling access to that right holder’s protected subject matter with a view to their use outside the territory covered by that licence agreement.
The Football Association Premier League Ltd (FAPL) organised the filming of premier league matches and exercising television broadcasting rights. Those rights were awarded to broadcasters under an open competitive tender procedure. Each successful bidder undertook to prevent the public from receiving their broadcasts outside the area for which they held the licence. In the UK, however, certain restaurants
