New Players, New Rules ' Football Media Rights Commitments Amended Due To Market Developments

• Jurisdiction: European Union
• Law Firm: Bird & Bird
• Subject Matter: Antitrust/Competition Law, Media, Telecoms, IT, Entertainment, Antitrust, EU Competition , Media & Entertainment Law
• Author: Mr Morten Nissen and Alexander Br'chner
• Published date: 24 January 2023

The Association of Danish League Clubs ("ADLC"), consisting of the premier Danish football clubs, jointly sells all media rights to the premier Danish football league (the Superliga).
Absent such an agreement on joint sales, the Danish football clubs would be in competition with each other for the sale of the media rights controlled by each of them.

Due to the concerns this raises in relation to the sale of media rights to broadcasters, the Danish Competition Council ("DCC") has in both 2007 and 2014 found commitments from the ADLC necessary to accept this agreement to jointly sell, as the cooperation would otherwise risk infringing Article 101(1) TFEU and/or Article 6 of the Danish Competition Act.

Pursuant to these commitments, the media rights could only be sold in packages to multiple bidders, thereby prohibiting exclusivity. Moreover, the method for tendering the media rights was regulated in great detail under these commitments.

In a decision dated 21 December 2022, the DCC has, however, accepted a partial temporary suspension of the previous commitments made.

The partial temporary suspension includes a suspension of the "no single buyer"-rule, which means that it will be possible for one broadcaster, streaming service or distributor to acquire the media rights to the Superliga exclusively for up to four seasons.

In addition to this, the tender conditions have been...