Premier League prosecutes pub over foreign satellite football screening

The Premier League is threatening to prosecute 100 pubs in England and Wales over football screenings

The Premier league has begun its crackdown on foreign football broadcasts in pubs, with one landlord forced to pay out £65,000 in legal costs after a ruling in the High Court.

The League took Anthony Luxton to court after he showed live matches at the Rhyddings hotel Swansea using a foreign satellite card issued by a Danish TV broadcaster.

According to a BBC report, the League’s QC Helen Davies argued that Luxton breached ‘strict copyright rules’ by screening the live matches using the card, which was only licensed for private use. The use of the Premier League logo on the Danish TV pictures was central to the case.

The High Court judge rejected Luxton’s attempt to defend himself by invoking European free trade rules, and issued an injunction banning him from screening further foreign satellite matches. He was also ordered to pay £65,000 in legal costs, pending a final assessment of what he owes.

Further cases

Commenting on the judgement, a Premier League spokesperson said: “We welcome confirmation from the High Court that The Rhyddings Hotel in Swansea was infringing our copyright with its broadcasts of Premier League football.

"We are currently undertaking our largest ever investigations programme and have commenced legal action against several pubs and will continue to do so.

"Only Sky Sports and BT Sport are authorised to show live Premier League football in pubs in the UK and legitimate commercial subscriptions for use in pubs can be obtained from them."

Crackdown

The Premier League revealed plans to stop foreign satellite screenings of football matches earlier this month, claiming it would prosecute 100 pubs across England and Wales.

Dan Johnson, the League’s director of communications, told the BBC: “BT Sport and Sky Sports invest huge amounts of money in the Premier League and that then is in turn invested by the clubs in new stadia, developing players, acquiring players, the whole range of things that make Premier League football so popular.

“So anything that damages the ability of broadcasters to invest in that has the potential to damage the ability of the clubs to invest in that.”

He added that the Premier League wanted to ‘help educate’ licensees and would first issue a warning asking them to get rid of any foreign satellite systems.

However, he said any landlords that refused to comply would face possible prosecution.