French Competition Authority/Ligue 1 TV rights: Canal+ loses its appeal against the LFP

On 30/06/2022, the Paris Court of Appeal confirmed the French Competition Authority's decision (of 11/06/2021), which rejected Canal+'s complaint concerning the reallocation of the broadcasting rights to the Ligue 1 Uber Eats and Ligue 2 BKT initially awarded to Mediapro and then recovered by Amazon for €259m.

The Canal+ group criticised the LFP for not putting Lot 3 (Saturday 21:00 and Sunday 17:00 matches) back on the market, which it had sublicensed from beIN Sports for €332m per season. On 11/06/2021, Amazon acquired the rights to Ligue 1 initially held by Mediapro (85% of the matches, 80% of which were exclusive) for more than three times less than the amount wagered by the Spanish group (€250m vs €780m).

The French Competition Authority considered that "the LFP had no interest, especially in the context of the health crisis, in terminating the contract for Lot 3: on the contrary, this decision protected its financial interests and those of the clubs. The market consultation launched by the LFP in 2021 appears to have been organised in a transparent and non-discriminatory…