February 6, 2013
COURT OF APPEAL (CRIMINAL DIVISION)
United Kingdom
CORAM
AI Generated Summary
The Court of Appeal (Sir Robin Jacob, with Lewison and Lloyd LJJ concurring) addressed consolidated appeals involving Football DataCo (FDC), Sportradar and Stan James concerning database rights in live football data. FDC’s Football Live system collects match events through FBAs reporting to SIPs, forming a systematically arranged database. Sportradar’s Betradar/Live Scores aggregated live statistics; for lower-league games, it used sources that included data flowing directly or indirectly from Football Live, and Stan James embedded Live Scores in a skinned pop‑up targeting UK punters. Applying CJEU authority, the Court held Football Live is a protected database under Article 7(1) of Directive 96/9/EC. It ruled that accessing the Stan James pop‑up causes extraction because the entire Live Scores dataset is transferred to users’ computers, and that both pre‑defence and post‑defence (goals/times only) data embody substantial investment. The Court found Stan James and Sportradar jointly liable with UK users, rejected defences under abuse of rights and Article 10 ECHR, and noted the CJEU’s jurisdiction ruling (C‑173/11) and Sportradar’s concession of UK targeting.
Judgment
Sir Robin Jacob:
These are four appeals and cross appeals from a judgment of Floyd J of 8 th May 2012, [2012] EWHC 1185 (Ch) . The judgment was in two actions, called Sportradar and Stan James respectively.
Mr James Mellor QC and Miss Lindsay Lane represented the claimants (whom I will collectively call FDC, nothing turning on the distinction between them), Mr Michael Silverleaf QC and Mr Hugo Cuddigan represented Sportradar (as I collectively call the German/Austrian defendants) and Mr Geoffrey Hobbs QC and Mr Philip Roberts represented the two Stan James defendants (whom I can call collectively Stan James). Other defendants have come out of the case for various reasons.
Who the parties are and what they do
(a) FDC
FDC (the details of which company comprised within FDC owns what do not matter) claims to own a sui generis database right pursuant to the provisions of the Database Directive (96/9/EC). Part of the data in FDC’s database consists of “live” data about football matches in the English and Scottish leagues, the Carling Cup and other English and Scottish matches. The part of the database containing this live data is called Football Live in these proceedings. A match which is the subject of FDC’s system is called an FDC match.
The live data is obtained by FDC in the following way. Whenever an FDC match is to be played FDC sends (and pays for) a “football analyst” (FBA) to watch it at the ground. Many of the FBAs are ex-professional footballers. They normally sit in the press box. They have to be there an hour before kick-off and report in by mobile phone to an individual at the central information centre run by FDC. The person they report to is called a Sports Information Processor (SIP). The reason for requiring the early report in is to ensure that the FBA is there: if he does not report in an hour before kick off there is time to put in place a replacement – full coverage is very important to the database. The FBA is provided with two mobile telephones on different networks against the possibility of a breakdown.
During the match the FBA maintains constant contact with his SIP. He provides something “in the nature of a running commentary” as the Judge called it. The FBA must tell his SIP about a whole range of events on the field as soon as they occur: goals and their times, scorers, assists, type of shot, misses and their types, cards, fouls and who by, saves, corners, substitutions and so on. There are other matters too – mat