By using the webstream the pair were able to avoid payments of £119,000 to pay-television service BSkyB, the UK Premier League rights-holder. The Darrochs had received 40 warning letters from police that they were breaching UK copyright law but continued to show the matches.
In their defence, the Darroch’s lawyers raised the recent opinion by Juliane Kokott, the advocate general of the European Court of Justice, in a separate Premier League copyright case against a publican – Kokott said that the publican, Karen Murphy, had not broken the law by showing foreign satellite coverage of Premier League games – but the court rejected the argument.