Premier League takes legal action against foreign satellite supplier
The FA Premier League (FAPL) is taking civil action in the High Court against a supplier of foreign satellite equipment.
In an unprecedented move, a civil writ was this week issued against Durham-based company QC Leisure, which supplies live Premiership football to pubs via foreign TV satellite channels.
The FAPL will challenge the company on two major points. It will claim that the equipment QC Leisure has been selling enables people to view overseas transmissions which they are not entitled to do so, under copyright law.
Secondly, the FAPL will argue that by encouraging people to buy encryption cards and "guaranteeing" that they are legal, QC Leisure is procuring publicans to break the Premier League's copyright.
QC Leisure has 28 days to prepare and file a defence.
Dan Johnson, chief spokesman for the FAPL, said: "The Premier League has said from day one that it's committed to prosecuting suppliers of illegal satellite equipment and this action shows we are true to our word.
"It also sends a message that we are seeking to protect publicans from mis-information and mis-selling that enables the likes of QC Leisure (QCL) to make significant amounts of money, ultimately at the expense of pubs and clubs."
A spokesman for QC Leisure, said: "We are surprised at these unfounded and spurious actions of the FAPL/Sky to attempt to prosecute us under a law that serves no remedy for our business practices.
"It is a blatant attempt to frighten us and other suppliers financially by using the threat of a High Court action to do so.
"It is also an attempt to defame the business practices of QCL in the hope of damaging business to a point where QCL back down for fear of financial ruin.
"Fortuitously QCL have a loyal client base that stands by us and are sure in the knowledge that they are by no way breaking the law by using their alternative satellite system."
The action comes in the wake of a series of letters issued by four satellite channels stating they have no right to show Premiership football in the UK. The channels are ART, SuperSport, Canal+ and DigitAlb.
In one letter, seen by The Publican, a solicitor for ART's parent company IMG Media states that: "IMG Media Limited (and by extension, ART) has no rights to broadcast outside the territory of North Africa and the Middle East and, in particular, has no rights whatsoever to broadcast within the United Kingdom."
