EC poised to launch antitrust investigation into sports-rights sales

The European Commission is on the verge of launching a widespread antitrust investigation into the sale of rights to exclusive television content such as sporting events, according to the Financial Times.

The newspaper said that a formal EC probe could lead to the end of the traditional country-by-country rights model for the sale of exclusive pay-television content such as live sport and newly-released movies.

The report added that the EC is set to look into whether “absolute territorial protection clauses” infringe upon competition law.

Such clauses prevent licensees from selling to other countries or accepting unsolicited demands from overseas customers to pay to access the content.

The move comes in the wake of the high-profile European Court of Justice legal case that originally brought into question the territory-by-territory model.

In October 2011, the ECJ advised the UK High Court, in the English Premier League’s case against Portsmouth publican Karen Murphy, that European Union citizens were free to acquire pay-television services from any EU member state, although they could be in breach of copyright law if they showed copyrighted elements within broadcasts without the permission of the top division of English football.

Murphy’s partial victory led the Spanish commissioner with responsibility for competition policy, Joaquín Almunia, to commence a fact-finding mission that is now expected to lead to a full investigation.