A local court ruling that leaves consumers free to watch live football from decoder cards has been welcomed as a step forward by the Consumers’ Association.

In a free market, consumers will choose those offering quality service at competitive prices

But industry sources say such rulings could force the UK’s Premier League to up its rights’ fees so far that they become out of reach for Maltese telecommunications companies.

Friday’s ruling by Judge Abigail Lofaro is an application of a widely publicised judgment by the European Court of Justice last year, where a UK pub owner was allowed to use a Greek decoder to show live Premier League games.

Both rulings said the FA Premier League could not claim copyright on live matches because they were not creative works that qualify as intellectual property. Without this copyright, the freedom to provide services across the EU could not be restricted.

Therefore, in the local case, even though Melita bought exclusivity to air the games in Malta, Telestarr could not be stopped from selling foreign decoder cards that give buyers access to the same matches.

Consumers’ Association’s lawyer Antoine Grima told The Sunday Times this opened the market to competition, which was sometimes restricted be­cause of copyright law.

This was especially a step forward in Malta where the small number of operators creates an oligopolistic scenario.

Dr Grima said a ruling like this meant the courts were addressing market issues before the regulator. He said this should prompt companies such as Melita and Go to rethink their business model since they will now have to compete, legally, with foreign decoders.

Melita does not own these rights anymore

Rather than worrying about Dreambox subscribers (Dreambox remains legally questionable since it involves card sharing), Dr Grima said telecommunications firms should rethink their prices.

Dr Grima said: “In a free market, consumers will choose those offering quality service at competitive prices.

“Restraining consumer choice simply leads to further disgruntlement and earning a bad reputation, something which any sensible operator should not want to be attributed with.”

He said one option could be sharing football rights to ensure that consumers would not opt for foreign decoders providing more choice than Melita or Go.

Meanwhile, industry sources told The Sunday Times that while the ruling could benefit consumers at first, its implications could be more sinister.

By allowing telecommunications companies to sell their services across the EU through such decoders, the Premier League is likely to react by charging more for exclusivity so that only a huge, pan-EU broadcaster will be able to afford to distribute games.

This could mean less competition on an EU level and Maltese consumers put at the mercy of prices set by a pan-EU monopoly or duopoly.

Other sources said the ruling could have implications for other forms of live entertainment, such as music concerts.

Melita said it could not comment on the judgment because it had not yet obtained a full copy and did not want to rely on press reports.

However, a spokesman pointed out that the case dated back to 2007 and was started by the UK Premier League. Melita became involved as the operator who had the Maltese broadcast rights.

“Melita does not own these rights anymore,” he said, implying any implications would affect Go, which today owns the rights, more than Melita.

Go was unable to be reached for comment yesterday.

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