With the High Court expected to accept the European Court of Justice’s (ECJ’s) ruling within months, Murphy, licensee of the Red White & Blue in Southsea, Hampshire, said the judgement could be a massive step forward for the pub industry.
“It is a long time coming and needed to be done because the pub trade is being squeezed by VAT, beer duty and a host of other factors,” said Murphy.
She added: “I got a lovely bunch of flowers from the House of Commons offering its congratulations and a man in South Africa congratulated me on behalf of his whole country.
“A man also drove to the pub all the way from Wales to see me. It has only just sunk in, to be honest.”
Asked how she thought the ruling could affect Sky, Murphy said: “At the moment they will clearly be going through the judgement with a fine toothcomb and trying to find anything they can out of it, but bear in mind that this verdict will open up the market to them being more active in Europe.”
The Premier League has since claimed that the unauthorised screening of Premiership games in pubs is still illegal in the UK because its official logo and theme tune are copyrighted material.
However, Murphy doesn’t believe the Premier League can apply such an argument to commercial agreements between themselves and European providers.
“It is my understanding that if the Premier League has sold its rights to European broadcasters, then that would include everything.”
Murphy’s lawyer Paul Dixon, of Molesworths Bright Clegg, said: “It has been six long years but it is a fantastic victory and I am absolutely thrilled for Karen.
“It was also a great day for Sky because it means it can now sell their own decoder cards throughout Europe to commercial and domestic consumers, and compete with other broadcasters throughout the EU.
“It would go hand-in-hand with the freedom of movement of goods and services, which is part of EU law, and which formed the key part of the ECJ judgement.
“There are already large numbers of Sky cards in use in Europe that have found their way into the market.
“The High Court must now apply the ECJ’s ruling when it gives its verdict on this case, and the concurrent civil actions against importers of foreign decoder cards.”
