In Case C-279/13 C More Entertainment, a reference for a preliminary ruling from the Högsta domstolen (Sweden), the Court of Justice of the European Union had to consider issues surrounding the direct broadcast of a sporting fixture on an internet site.
In a judgment given on 26 March, the CJEU had to consider a referral from the Swedish proceedings which concerned an internet site which provided links enabling internet users to access the site of a broadcasting organisation and watch live broadcasts of ice hockey matches without having to pay the broadcasting organisation’s fee. Was circumventing the paywall in this way allowable?
The CJEU stated that the referred question had to be understood as relating to whether Article 3(2) of Directive 2001/29 must be interpreted as precluding national legislation extending the exclusive right of the broadcasting organisations referred to in Article 3(2)(d) as regards acts of communication to the public which broadcasts of sporting fixtures made live on internet, such as those at issue in the main proceedings, may constitute.
The Swedish court initially referred five questions to the CJEU but withdrew four of them. The one remaining was as follows:
‘May the Member States give wider protection to the exclusive right of authors by enabling “communication to the public” to cover a greater range of acts than provided for in Article 3(2) of [Directive 2001/29]?’
The CJEU’s formal ruling was as follows:
Article 3(2) of Directive 2001/29/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 22 May 2001 on the harmonisation of certain aspects of copyright and related rights in the information society must be interpreted as not precluding national legislation extending the exclusive right of the broadcasting organisations referred to in Article 3(2)(d) as regards acts of communication to the public which broadcasts of sporting fixtures made live on internet, such as those at issue in the main proceedings, may constitute, provided that such an extension does not undermine the protection of copyright.
