Luxembourg, 16/12/2005 (Agence Europe) - The Court of First Instance of the EU has overruled the Commission's decision whereby measures notified by the United Kingdom on the televised coverage of sporting events on its territory were compatible with Community law. As the College had not been consulted, and as the Director-General who signed this letter (which is considered a legally contestable decision: Ed) was not authorised to do so, the Commission's decision is not legal, the press release explains.
Via contracts concluded with FIFA, Kirch Media, now Infront, had acquired exclusive rights to broadcast the final phase of the World Football Cup from 2002 to 2006 for the States of the European continent, Russia, the former Soviet republics and Turkey. The United Kingdom had notified the Commission of the full raft of measures in application of the directive of 1989, modified in 1997, on television broadcasting activities.
Under this directive, each Member State may take measures to ensure that television broadcasting bodies established on its territory do not hold exclusive re-transmission rights for events of major importance to society, such as the Olympic Games, the World Cup and the European Championship football, in such a way as to make it impossible for a large part of the public to view these events on terrestrial television channels.
Each Member State hoping to benefit from the mutual recognition of its national measures must notify these to the Commission which, once it has checked that these are compatible with Community law, publishes them in the Official Journal. The other Member States are then obliged to ensure that all television broadcasting bodies coming under their jurisdiction respect these measures, when these bodies operate in the notifying Member State.
The Court has not taken position on the substance of the decision, on which there may still be an appeal.