Court of Justice 3 February 2011, C-403/08 and C-429/08 (Football Association Premier League Ltd and Others v QC Leisure and Others (C-403/08) and Karen Murphy v Media Protection Services Ltd (C-429/08).)

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Advocate General Kokott opines in joined Cases C-403/08 and C-429/08 that decoder cards lawfully placed on the market in one Member State do not become 'illicit devices' within the meaning of Article 2(e) of Directive 98/84/EC merely by being used in another Member State, and that freedom to provide services under Article 56 TFEU precludes national provisions prohibiting such use on intellectual property grounds where the rights-holder has consented to the broadcast. The AG further opines that Article 3(1) of Directive 2001/29/EC does not extend to the free public showing of a broadcast on a single television screen in a pub, as that provision covers only communications to a public not present at the place where the communication originates, while transient copies on a television screen (but not in a decoder's memory buffer) possess independent economic significance under Article 5(1) of that Directive. Regarding competition law, the AG concludes that exclusive territorial broadcasting licence agreements containing obligations preventing decoder cards from being used outside the licensed territory have as their object the prevention, restriction, or distortion of competition contrary to Article 101(1) TFEU, without any need to demonstrate actual anti-competitive effects.AI