Football Association Premier League Ltd v QC Leisure

Subject Matter

PRACTICE — Parties — Joinder — Court referring questions to Court of Justice of the European Communities — Non-parties applying to be joined as claimants to national court proceedings in order to take part in preliminary reference procedure — Whether court having jurisdiction to join parties as claimants to national court proceedings for that purpose — Whether discretion to be exercised — CPR r 19.2(2)(a)

[2008] EWHC 2897 (Ch); [2009] 1 WLR 1603, Ch D

EUROPEAN UNION — Free competition — Restriction or distortion of competition — Broadcasting — Claimant operating system of licences for broadcast of football matches — Each licensee granted exclusive right to broadcast matches in single member state — Each subscriber requiring decoder card to decrypt licensee’s satellite signal — Licensees prohibited under licence agreement from supplying decoder cards to persons outside member state for which licence granted — Businesses in United Kingdom using decoder cards obtained by subterfuge from foreign licensee — Whether cards “illicit device” — Whether national legislation prohibiting import, sale or use of foreign decoder cards contrary to freedom to provide services — Whether objective of protecting intellectual property rights justifying prohibition — Whether contractual prohibition on supplying decoder cards contrary to EU competition law — Whether transient fragments of protected works on television screen “acts of reproduction” — Whether acts exempt — Whether transmission of works “communication to the public” for which authorisation required — Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, ss 297, 298 — FEU Treaty, arts 56FEU, 101FEU — Council Directive 98/84/EC, arts 2, 3 — Council Directive 2001/29/EC, arts 2, 3, 5

(Joined cases C-403/08 and C-429/08); EU:C:2011:631; [2012] Bus LR 1321; [2012] All ER (EC) 629; [2011] WLR (D) 286, ECJ

EUROPEAN UNION — Satellite broadcasting — Broadcasting of football matches — Reception of the broadcast by means of satellite decoder cards — Satellite decoder cards lawfully placed on the market in one Member State and used in another Member State — Prohibition on marketing and use in a Member State — Visualisation of broadcasts in disregard of the exclusive rights granted — Copyright — Television broadcasting right — Exclusive licences to broadcast in a single Member State — Freedom to provide services — Article 56 TFEU — Competition — Article 101 TFEU — Restriction of competition by object — Protection of services based on conditional access — Illicit device — Directive 98/84/EC — Directive 2001/29/EC — Reproduction of works within the memory of a satellite decoder and on a television screen — Exception to the reproduction right — Communication of works to the public in public houses — Directive 93/83/EEC

(Joined cases C-403/08 and C-429/08); EU:C:2011:631; [2012] Bus LR 1321; [2012] All ER (EC) 629; [2011] WLR (D) 286, ECJ

Appellate History

Commentary

Blackstones Civil Practice 2023
Procedure in England 78.13