The Cour de cassation (Court of cassation), the highest court in the French judiciary system, has ruled in favour of Canal+ in its joint dispute with beIN Sports against the Professional Football League (LFP).
The case relates to the tender for the broadcast rights to Ligue 1 for the period 2021-2024.
The decision overturns the February 2023 ruling by the Paris Court of Appeal dated February 3, 2023 that had dismissed Canal’s claim. The appeal court had backed the view of the Paris Commercial Court that the LFP should have re-tendered for Ligue 1’s entire rights package, rather than just the portion that had been allocated to Mediapro, which had defaulted in its payment.
The rights that represented 80% of French top-flight football were offered directly to Amazon.
While 80% of Ligue 1 matches, including the 10 best matches, had been awarded to Amazon (Prime Video) for €250 million per season, Canal was forced to pay €332 million per season for 20% of the matches.
In June 2021, the Competition Authority rejected Canal’s appeal against the LFP, a decision confirmed by the Court of Appeal in June 2022. In November 2022 it also rejected referrals from Canal and beIN citing a lack of sufficiently compelling evidence.
While Canal called the Cour de cassation’s ruling a decisive step, the LFP said there were no immediate consequences.
The case now returns to the Paris Court of Appeal with the LFP expressing confidence the complaints will again be rejected.
Canal declined to bid for the domestic rights to Ligue 1 for 2024-2029, where DAZN is now the new major broadcaster of the championship with all but one of the nine matches in each round. beIN secured the remaining match, but perhaps Canal got the last laugh when it renewed its agreements with both DAZN and beIN.
