Media: LFP / Mediapro / Canal +/ beIN Sports: the Court of Cassation refers the case to the Paris Court of Appeal
A new episode in the procedural saga surrounding the Professional Football League’s television rights, which we commented on in our previous newsletters, occurred on 25 September 2024.
As a reminder, the case stems from a call for bids launched by the LFP in 2018, aimed at selling the television broadcasting rights for Ligue 1 matches for the period 2020-2024.
Following the tender, the rights were divided between Mediapro (lots 1, 2, 4, 5 and 7), Free (lot 6) and beIN Sports (lot 3), with the latter subsequently granting a sub-licence to Canal +.
As a result of Mediapro’s failure to pay the price, the contract under which the audiovisual group was awarded the rights was terminated early in 2020.
The LFP then organised a new call for tenders in order to allocate Mediapro’s five lots.
The Canal + group and beIN Sports therefore accused the LFP of discriminatory behaviour in the allocation of these lots, and of abuse of a dominant position insofar as, in their view, all the lots should have been reallocated. However, the French competition authority “Autorité de la Concurrence” (Aut. Conc. Déc.n°21-D-12, 11 June 2021) and then the Paris Court of Appeal (CA Paris, 30 June 2022, n°21/13216) dismissed Canal +’s claims on the grounds that they lacked sufficient evidence.
This second call for tenders was subsequently followed by private negotiations, which led to the award of the lots returned by Mediapro to Amazon on 11 June 2021.
Here again, Canal + and beIN Sports claim that the LFP abused its dominant position by placing the Canal Group and Amazon in an unfair exploitation situation, with Canal + exploiting lot 3 (20% of Ligue 1 rights) for the sum of €332 million set in 2018, while Amazon exploited 80% of Ligue 1 rights for €250 million under the allocation negotiated in 2021.
Once again, the “Autorité de la Concurrence” will not grant the channels’ requests (Déc.n°22-D-22, 30 November 2022) for lack of evidence, a reasoning supported by the Paris Court of Appeal in its 3 February 2023 decision (Aut. Conc. Déc.n°22-D-22, 30 November 2022).
Following an appeal by Canal + and Bein Sports, the French Supreme Court (Cour de cassation) ruled, in a Commercial Chamber decision of 25 September 2024, on the principle of res judicata, on the scope of a decision by the “Autorité de la Concurrence” rejecting a referral and on the role of the trial judge in assessing the facts relating to potential anti-competitive practices (Cass. Ch. Com. 25 Sept. 2024, no. 23-13.067) and quashed the Paris Court of Appeal’s ruling of 3 February 2023 in its entirety.
It is now up to the Paris Court of Appeal, composed of different judges, to rule again on these points, in order to decide whether or not the granting of League 1 television rights to Amazon was anti-competitive.
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