EU Courts Back Bookies

UNITED KINGDOM – As reported by the Scotsman: "A British bookmaker and three other pools operators acted within the law when they used horse racing and football fixtures without paying a licence fee to the companies that compiled the databases, an EU court ruled today.

"The Luxembourg based Court of Justice dismissed arguments that the companies compiling the databases put in a 'substantial investment,' saying that did not mean the database creators were protected under EU copyright laws, which prevent others from using the data for free.

"The four companies using the horse racing and football databases were Britain's William Hill, Oy Veikkaus of Finland, Svenska Spel of Sweden and OPAP of Greece.

"The court threw out the case brought in 2002 by the British Horse Racing Board, which complained William Hill was infringing its rights as makers of a database.

"…The court also threw out the case brought by Britain's Fixtures Marketing Ltd, a company that compiles information on the British football leagues and sells abroad…"