The Scottish Premier League is facing a damages claim for stopping a Scottish pub operator using a Polish pay-television service to show its matches, according to the BBC Sport website.
The league obtained a court order in 2007 to prevent one of Lisini Pub Management’s pubs in Scotland showing live Saturday afternoon SPL games using the Polish service.
The company is now claiming £1.8 million (€2.1 million/$2.7 million) in damages after the court order was recalled following the October 2011 European Court of Justice ruling in the English Premier League’s case against English pub owner Karen Murphy.
Lord Woolman, a judge at the court of session in Edinburgh, has dismissed a bid by the SPL to have Lisini’s damages claim thrown out, and said that the ECJ’s ruling had “an important bearing on the present action.”
“The material facts are virtually identical,” he said. “The European Court of Justice gave clear answers to the precise questions referred to it. Its decision means subscribers in member states are entitled to access broadcast signals from other member states. An EC citizen living in, say, Germany should not be prevented from obtaining a signal from Sky, BBC, RAI, Nova or Polsat. In my view the ECJ has held that the object of such agreements is to restrict competition. That is enough to provide Lisini with a prima facie case.”