SIS/Bookmakers v Turf TV [2008] EWHC 1978 (Ch)
High Court judgment (about 95 pages) rejecting a claim of infringement of Article 81(1) made by bookmakers and their broadcasting suppliers BAGS and SIS against the Racing UK group of racecourses. The issue was the exclusive rights to broadcast races in bookmakers' shops granted by some racecourses to the Turf TV joint venture. SIS was until then the only such broadcaster.
The judge's verdict was:
502. In my judgment, the decision by the 18 operators of the 30 courses to back their joint venture and not undermine it by selling their rights to BAGS or SIS is not an infringement of Article 81(1).
The main findings of fact behind this conclusion appear to be that:
- BAGS, SIS and bookmakers had not shown a "real concrete possibility" of there being a third entrant (besides SIS and Turf TV). Therefore there was nothing that could be foreclosed from the market as a result of exclusivity.
- The exclusivity prevented SIS from increasing its share of the market, but that was not a restriction on competition in the circumstances (where BAGS/SIS was a monopoly until Turf TV started).
- In any event, exclusivity was a necessary ancillary restriction for the Turf TV joint venture, because SIS had already been signing up racecourses on an exclusive basis: “it was commercially necessary to enter that market as a successful competitor to take exclusive rights to as many courses as were available and to prevent SIS acquiring such rights on an exclusive basis” (paragraph 475).
For further information or advice please contact Franck Latrémolière.
Filed under Article 81, Media, UK courts.
