Justice Barling, chairman of a tribunal set up to consider whether UK pay-television broadcaster Sky should have to offer its Sky Sports 1 and 2 channels to rival telecommunications company BT, has agreed to step down from the role, according to the Guardian newspaper.
An original ruling of the case in 2012 concluded that the decision by UK media regulator Ofcom in 2010 to force Sky to make the two channels available to rivals at a discounted price was flawed and unfounded.
However, BT in February last year successfully appealed the ruling and Barling was appointed as chairman of the new hearing.
Despite the case having been reopened, BT and Ofcom have lodged a complaint over potential bias regarding comments Barling made during a gathering of anti-trust lawyers when he was still president of the tribunal in 2013.
The tribunal has confirmed Barling will now step down as chairman from the new hearing in the wake of these “specific objections.”
However, the other two members of the competition appeal tribunal that made the ruling in 2012, Michael Blair QC and Professor John Beath, will continue to reinvestigate the case.
The tribunal said the objections over Barling “provide no basis for the recusal of the other two members of the original panel.”
Sky and BT, through its pay-television service BT Sport, are both domestic live rights-holders for football’s English Premier League.