Resumen de France: : LFP has broadcasting of Leagues 1 and 2 matches on a streaming site stopped
On 19 March 2015, the regional court (tribunal de grande instance - TGI) of Paris delivered a judgment, which is a promising development for holders of rights involving sports events in their battle against on-line video platforms and streaming sites. The case involved the French professional football league (Ligue de Football Professionnel - LFP) which had granted exclusive live audiovisual rights for the League 1 and 2 championships (in return for 748.5 million euros per season for the period from 2016 to 2020) to the pay channels Canal Plus and beIN Sport, and for subsequent availability on the YouTube, Dailymotion and L'Equipe internet sites. The LFP, noting that the Spanish internet site ‘rojadirecta’ was making it possible to view live broadcasts of sports events free of charge, offering a calendar with a series of hypertext links allowing live or slightly delayed viewing of matches, including those organised by the LFP, had contacted the site, calling on it to remove the disputed links and to do its utmost to prevent their being put on-line. In the absence of any reaction from site, the LFP summoned ‘rojadirecta’ to appear in court. Its main argument was that the site’s operator had the capacity of editor with an active role in providing internet users with the means of fraudulently viewing the rightsholders’ protected content, using the ‘transclusion’ technique which gave internet users the impression that the video was being broadcast from its own site. In its defence, the operator claimed it was merely a host, and therefore covered by the limited liability scheme provided for in Article 6 of the LCEN. Accordingly, it argued that it could not be held responsible for internet users posting hypertext links that made it possible to view the matches and that it was therefore not at fault under Article 1382 of the Civil Code.
