The document discusses a case regarding the broadcasting of English Premier League (EPL) football matches in the UK. Karen Murphy broadcasted EPL matches at a lower cost using a Greek decoder, violating Sky's exclusive UK broadcasting rights. Murphy appealed claiming it complied with the EU's Single Market Act. The European Court of Justice (ECJ) ruled in Murphy's favor, stating that restrictions on broadcasting violated EU free movement rules. This impacts EPL TV revenues and regional agreements. Brexit may impact player transfers between the UK and EU as well as investments and trade between the two.

1. I WANT MY GREEK TV!
Presented By:
Tony Matthew (166)
Tulika Kalra (167)
Tushar Samaria (168)
V Sai Venkatesh (169)

2. Introduction
About Case:
 EU implemented the Single Market Act.
 Karen Murphy broadcasted EPL at a lower cost using
a decoder.
 Lawsuit was filed by EPL.
 She appealed the ruling, claiming the practice violated
the EU’s Single Market Act. (signed by UK in 1992).
 EU’s highest court, ECJ favored Murphy.

3. European Union
 Product of two political factors:
(i) Devastation of Western Europe during two world wars & desire for
lasting peace.
(ii) the European nations’ desire to hold their own on the world’s political
and economic stage.
 Signing Treaty of Rome in 1957 provided creation of common market
(stated in Article 3).
 Great Britain joined EU in 1973.
 Single European Act (SEA) was the first major revision of the
1957 Treaty of Rome. The Act set the European Community an objective
of establishing a single market by 31 December 1992.
 After Brexit, 27 members will be there in EU.

4. The Case
Broadcasting Rules:
 FAPL grants a series of exclusive territorial broadcast licenses for its Premier League
football games.
 Sky had bought the rights for EPL using 3.08 billion pounds. So any telecast in UK
without permission from Sky would be a copyright infringement.
 Significant high demand in UK for Premier League coverage resulted in charging the
subscribers higher prices.
 The FAPL's contract required the broadcaster in each territory to ensure that only
viewers in that territory could view their games.
 In particular the Greek broadcaster was required to prevent its decoder cards being
used by viewers to watch its broadcasts outside its licensed territory.
 This was underpinned by provision in the UK's Copyright Designs and Patents Act
1988 ("CDPA") which create criminal sanctions for use of foreign decoder equipment in
these circumstances.

5. EPL & TV RIGHTS
 In revenue terms, it is now the 4th largest league in
the world.
 The Premier League is the most-watched football
league in the world, broadcast in 212 territories.
 From 2016 even the bottom-placed Premier League
club is likely to receive £99m a season in television
rights alone.

6. Implications of Case
 Inability to sell TV rights for higher amounts.
 Regional contract agreements.
 Lack of spending power.
a. Inability to attract big players
b. Merchandise sales

7. HOW THE DEALS HAVE GROWN
 1992-97 Worth £191m over five years.
 1997-01 Worth £670m over four years.
 2001-04 Worth £1.1bn over three years.
 2004-07 Worth £1.024bn over three years.
 2007-10 Worth £1.7bn over three years.
 2010-13 Worth £1.782bn over three years.
 2013-2016 Worth £5.5bn over three years.

8. ECJ’s Verdict
 Content licenses imposing absolute obligations to restrict viewing to an assigned territory, and laws
of individual member states supporting such arrangements, breach basic EU rules on freedom to
provide services and the free movement of services and the competition rules.
 Those restrictions cannot be justified to protect any interest the FAPL have in the intellectual
property content of the broadcast of the game themselves. In this context, the court expressed the
view that any legitimate interest the FAPL may have in the intellectual property in coverage of the
matches does not extend to charging a premium for territorial exclusivity of exploitation of those
matches
 The restrictions are also not justified by an objective of protecting attendances at matches
themselves. That protection could be achieved more appropriately by restrictions on the timing of
coverage.
 When a pub plays out a broadcast, this in itself involves a "communication to the public". If the
broadcast includes FAPL intellectual property, such as a Premier League logo and anthem, this
would potentially require FAPL authorization.
 live matches were not protected by copyright, any surrounding media, such as any opening video
sequence, the Premier League anthem, pre-recorded films showing highlights of recent Premier
League matches and various graphics, were "works" protected by copyright.
 the Premier League could not claim copyright over Premier League matches as they could not be
considered to be an author's own "intellectual creation" and, therefore, to be "works" for the

9. Viewpoints
Fan’s View
 For fans who can’t
afford to go to the
games, they can
take a walk down
to the local and
watch their team.
EPL’s View
 Less people comes to
stadium.
 Top clubs will be in
problem & small clubs
will struggle.
 People should be
encouraged to go to
football and this doesn’t
do that.

10. PROS
Single market for businesses
• The removal of fiscal barriers (VAT and Excise duties)
• Transport – de-regulation of the transport markets.
CITIZENS : (FREEDOM OF CHOICE)
• Wish to live study or work
• Academic and professional qualifications are
recognized across the EU
More benefits consumers
• Wide variety of choices, better quality, lower prices
• Can buy goods and services from any provider
without having to accept contractual conditions
different from those that apply in your country
Less bureaucracy:
• LAWS ARE unified across all the EU
• Companies can establish themselves in under
the same conditions or to offer cross border
services from homebase

11. CONS
 In reality worker mobility is not as great as hoped
 Monopolies may be formed – these are an example of market failure
Many businesses still see barriers like
• small differences in national tax systems impede market integration and undermine efficiency
• e-commerce between EU countries has been slower to take off than at national level, and rules,
standards and practices vary considerably
• services sector is lagging behind the goods markets (although it has been possible since 2006 for
companies to offer a range of services abroad from their home base)
• rules on the recognition of vocational qualifications need to be simplified to make it easier for
qualified workers to find a job in another EU country.

12. Strategies that can be adopted
 Introduce own Premier League subscription TV
channel.
 Maintain sales on a country-by-country basis but
exclude countries such as Greece who do not pay
much and yet are providing cheap alternatives to Sky
for pubs and clubs.
 To sell their domestic rights and European rights as
one giant package.

13. Brexit impact on EPL
• Players from EU will be treated as
foreigners in Britain and may have to apply
for a work permit to play in the EPL
From Britain perspective
• UK country Leagues will have to follow
rules imposed on non-EU players, which
means getting a work permit would also
depend on the FIFA ranking of the
countries they come from.
• The falling value of the pound after
Brexit is also causing problems, if the
pound continues to fall acquiring
players from the EU will get more
expensive for English club
• 60% clubs are English clubs

14. Brexit impact on EU
 The imbalance in the trade relationship is such that the UK is an important source of demand for the rest of the EU
 The UK’s trade deficit with the rest of the EU has grown substantially in recent years and was €66bn in 2013, the
equivalent of 0.6% of the GDP of the EU27 countries.
 countries importing and exporting majorly with UK like Ireland, Germany, poland, belgium, hungary etc resulting
in decreasing their GDP of 1%.
 UK companies are relatively upstream in global supply chains, compared to companies in other European countries.
In 2009 the UK exported almost $54bn of business and financial ,$30bn of mining and chemical products and
over $20bn in the transport, telecom, and wholesale and retail sectors into international supply chains.
 The UK is the largest recipient of FDI in the EU,UK as a gateway to Europe resulting in reducing the investments into
EU
 Industrial policy changes, financial services, uncertainty ,international influence in terms military and foreign policy