1 See Coopers & Lybrand, The Impact of European Union Activities on Sport, 17 Loy. L.A. Int’l & Comp. L.J. 245, 285 (1995).
2 See id.
3 See id.
4 See id.
5 See id.
6 See Cases Lodged Before the Court of Justice (1989) (visited Oct. 11, 1999) <http://curia. eu.int/en/afz/index.htm>. The pending appeal number is C-320/96P. See Kruidvat v. Commission Opinion, at n.88 (visited Oct. 11, 1999) <http://curia.eu.int/jurisp/cgi-bin/ form.pl?lang=en&Submit=Submit&docrequire=alldocs&numaff=&datefs=&datefe=&nom- usuel=kruidvat&domaine=&mots=&resmax=100.htm>.
7 See Coopers & Lybrand, supra note 1, at 285. For example, the 1998 World Cup final game attracted almost 24 million viewers in the United Kingdom, sometimes reaching an 80% market share. See EBU Warning: Will the General Public Miss Out on the Next World Cup Celebration of Football in 2002? (visited Nov. 15, 1998) <http://www.ecu.ch/press_598a. htm>. It also attracted 24 million viewers in Germany and 20 million in Italy, sometimes reaching 74% and 84% market shares respectively. See id.
8 See Commission Decision relating a proceeding pursuant to Article 85 of the EEC Treaty (IV/32.150 - EBU/Eurovision System), 1993 O.J. (L 179) 23, 26.
9 See Coopers & Lybrand, supra note 1, at 285.
10 See Eurovision System, 1993 O.J. (L 179) at 26.
11 See id.
12 See id.
13 See Coopers & Lybrand, supra note 1, at 284.
14 See id.
15 See id.
16 See id.
17 See id.
18 See Eurovision System, 1993 O.J. (L 179) at 27.
19 See Coopers & Lybrand, supra note 1, at 285.
20 See id.
21 See id.
22 See id.
23 See id.
24 See Coopers & Lybrand, supra note 1, at 285.
25 See Eurovision System, 1993 O.J. (L 179) at 27.
26 See id.
27 See id.
28 See id.
29 See Shailagh Murray, Show of Strength: EBU Sees Competition from Commercial TV Erode Its Buying Power—Union of Public Broadcasters Faces More Rivals in Battle for Programs and Viewers, Wall St. J. Eur., July 3, 1996, available in 1996 WL-WSJE 10746653. In addition, the EBU paid $344 million U.S. for the exclusive right to broadcast the World Cup soccer matches in 1990, 1994, and 1998. See id. The value of these rights increased extraordinarily when Germany’s Kirch Group, a commercial broadcaster, paid $2.36 billion U.S. for the broadcast rights to the 2002 and 2006 World Cups. See William Echikson, Goodbye Hoodlums, Hello Big Money, Bus. Wk., Sept. 23, 1996, available in 1996 WL 10770679.
30 See Richard Sandomir, USOC’s Next Steps: Clean Up Mistakes, N.Y. Times, Mar. 4, 1999, available in LEXIS, News Library, NYT File.
31 See Eurovision System, 1993 O.J. (L 179) at 27.
32 See id. at 27–28.
33 See id.
34 See Coopers & Lybrand, supra note 1, at 285.
35 See id. at 286.
36 See Joined Cases T-528/93, T-542/93, T-543/93 and T-546/93, Metropole Television SA and Reti Televisive Italiane SpA and Gestevision Telecinco SA and Antena 3 de Television v. Commission 11(Ct. First Instance 1996), available in LEXIS, Intlaw Library, CELEX File.
37 See Eurovision System, 1993 O.J. (L 179) at 23. However, the EBU has been criticized for the fact that Canal Plus (a French channel) is a current member even though, subsequent to entry into the EBU, it transformed into a pay-per-view commercial broadcaster. See Murray, supra note 29.
38 See Coopers & Lybrand, supra note 1, at 286.
39 See id. Currently, the EBU has 69 active members in 50 countries throughout Europe, the Middle East, and North Africa. See All EBU Active Members (visited Sept. 23, 1999) <http://www.ebu.ch/membership.htm>.
40 See Eurovision System, 1993 O.J. (L 179) at 24. The EBU has 49 associate members in 30 countries, circling the globe from Australia to the United States and Canada. See All EBU Associate Members (visited Sept. 23, 1999) <http://www.ebu.ch/membership.htm>.
41 See Eurovision System, 1993 O.J. (L 179) at 23–24.
42 See id. at 24.
43 See id.
44 See id.
45 See Aaron N. Wise & Bruce S. Meyer, International Sports Law and Business 1790 (1997).
46 See Metropole Television SA, at 14 (Ct. First Instance 1996). Though the focus of this Note is the broadcasting of sports events, Eurovision does distribute current event footage for news and other programs, such as educational documentaries and music competitions. See The EBU in Brief (visited Sept. 23, 1999) <http://www.ebu.ch/overview.htm>.
47 See Wise & Meyer, supra note 45, at 1791.
48 See id.
49 See Metropole Television SA, at 14 (Ct. First Instance 1996).
50 See Wise & Meyer, supra note 45 at 1791.
51 See id.
52 See Eurovision System, 1993 O.J. (L 179) at 28.
53 See id.
54 See id.
55 See Wise & Meyer, supra note 45, at 1791. These competitors may be members from the same country or members from different countries whose broadcasts reach the other’s country in the same language. See id.
56 See id.
57 See id. In 1998, the EBU relayed 7,700 hours of sports and cultural programs to its members through Eurovision. See The EBU in Figures (visited Sept. 23, 1999) <http:// www.ebu.ch/numbers.htm>. Potentially, 640 million viewers in more than 255 million homes receive Eurovision. See id.
58 See Wise & Meyer, supra note 45 at 1791.
59 See Eurovision System, 1993 O.J. (L 179) at 29.
60 See id.
61 See id. at 30.
62 See id.; see also EBU Non-Members Access to Eurovision Sports Programmes (visited Sept. 23, 1999) <http://www.ebu.ch/conditions.html>.
63 See Treaty Establishing the European Economic Community, Mar. 27, 1957, 298 U.N.T.S. 11.
64 See id.
65 See id.
66 See id.
67 See id.
68 See Valentine Korah, An Introductory Guide to EC Competition Law and Practice 21, 69 (6th ed. 1997).
69 See id. at 21–22.
70 See id. A dismissal, negative clearance, or comfort letter are functionally the same: the Commission declares that, on the basis of the facts in its possession, there are no grounds for Article 85 action on its part. See id. at 144. A negative clearance is more formal than a comfort letter, which is less cumbersome and more frequently used. See id. When the Commission decides to implement Article 85 and examine whether an exemption is due, it can either exempt the challenged agreement or order the parties to terminate the infringement. See id. at 68–72, 144.
71 See id. at 68–72. Individual exemptions govern only the agreement at issue; group exemptions define the sort of agreements that come within them, such as technology licenses or exclusive distribution agreements. See id.
72 See Coopers & Lybrand, supra note 1, at 285.
73 See id.
74 See id.
75 See Eurovision System, 1993 O.J. (L 179) at 25.
76 See id.
77See id. at 24.
78 See Metropole Television SA, at 11 (Ct. First Instance 1996).
79 See id.
80 See id. at 11–12.
81 See Eurovision System, 1993 O.J. (L 179) at 25.
82 See id.
83 See id.
84 See id.
85 See id. For example, Sky Sports is owned by BSkyB, a subsidiary of Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp. See Stanley Reed, Drawing a Bead on BSkyB, Bus. Wk., Nov. 11, 1996, available in 1996 WL 10771470.
86 See Eurovision System, 1993 O.J. (L 179) at 25.
87 See id.
88 See id. at 26–27.
89 See id.
90 See id. at 27.
91 See Eurovision System, 1993 O.J. (L 179) at 25.
92 See id.
93 See id. at 31.
94 See id. at 28.
95 See id. at 32.
96 See Eurovision System, 1993 O.J. (L 179) at 28.
97 See Echikson, supra note 29; Murray, supra note 29.
98 See Eurovision System, 1993 O.J. (L 179) at 31–32.
99 See id. at 28.
100 See id. at 37.
101 See John Temple Lang, Media, Multimedia, and European Community Antitrust Law, 21 Fordham Int’l L.J. 1296, 1331 (1998).
102 See Metropole Television SA, at 8 (Ct. First Instance 1996).
103 See id. at 51–52.
104 See id.
105 See Lang, supra note 101, at 1331.
106 Id. Prior to Metropole, the Community courts had never quashed an exemption granted by the Commission. See Korah, supra note 68, at 70.
107 See Lang, supra note 101, at 1331.
108 See id. at 1331–32.
109See Kruidvat, at n.88 (visited Oct. 11, 1999) <http://curia.eu.int/jurisp/cgi-bin/ form.pl?lang=en&Submit=Submit&docrequire=alldocs&numaff=&datefs=&datefe=&nomusuel=kruidvat&domaine=&mots=&resmax=100.htm>. The following analysis examines whether the Eurovision system merits an Article 85(3) exemption. It does not, however, comment on the propriety of the Court’s currently un-affirmed conclusion that the EBU membership criteria first must be reviewed or that financial and qualitative data must be provided. See Lang, supra note 101, at 1331–32.
110 See D.G. Goyder, EC Competition Law 129–40 (2d ed. 1993).
111 See id.
112 See id.
113 See id. at 132–33.
114 See id. at 133.
115 See Goyder, supra note 110, at 135.
116 See id. at 132–35.
117 See Wise & Meyer, supra note 45, at 1791.
118 See id. at 1789–90 n.320.
119 See Eurovision System, 1993 O.J. (L 179) at 28.
120 See id. at 25.
121 See Wise & Meyer, supra note 45, at 1789–90 n.320.
122 See Goyder, supra note 110, at 133.
123 See id. at 136.
124 See id.
125 See id.
126 See id. at 135.
127 See Goyder, supra note 110, at 135.
128 See id.
129 See id.
130 See id. at 136.
131 See id. at 136–37.
132 See Coopers & Lybrand, supra note 1, at 284.
133 See id.
134 See id.
135 See id.
136 See Goyder, supra note 110, at 137.
137 See id. at 138.
138 See id. at 138–39.
139 See Wise & Meyer, supra note 45, at 1791; Coopers & Lybrand, supra note 1, at 285.
140 See Wise & Meyer, supra note 45, at 1791. For example, EBU members received no advantage from Eurovision in the competition for the exclusive broadcast rights to the national (U.K.) Premier League soccer matches, for which Murdoch’s BSkyB paid $998 million U.S. for four years. See Reed, supra note 85.
141 See Eurovision System, 1993 O.J. (L 179) at 23.
142 See id.
143 See id. at 25.
144 See id.
145 See Goyder, supra note 110, at 139.
146 See Eurovision System, 1993 O.J. (L 179) at 29–30.
147 See Lang, supra note 101, at 1331.
148 See Eurovision System, 1993 O.J. (L 179) at 29.
149 See id.
150 See id.