Premier League and pub landlady await court TV ruling

Karen Murphy on why she took her fight to Europe, speaking to 5 live in October 2010

A pub landlady will later learn the result of her legal fight with English football's Premier League over use of a foreign TV decoder to screen games.

Karen Murphy had to pay nearly £8,000 in fines and costs for using a cheaper Greek decoder in her Portsmouth pub to bypass controls over match screening.
But she took her case to the European Court of Justice.
Its judges are to rule whether the league's power to restrict broadcasting rights within the UK breaches EU rules.
If they rule in favour of Ms Murphy, it could trigger a major shake-up for the Premier League and its current exclusive agreements with Sky Sports and ESPN.
The legal battle kicked off six years ago when Ms Murphy was taken to court for using the Nova firm to show matches at the Red, White and Blue pub.
Using the Greek service, she had paid £118 a month, rather than £480 a month with the official broadcaster.
Ban 'not possible'

But earlier this year the Luxembourg court's advocate general issued a legal "opinion" backing her case.

"European Union law does not make it possible to prohibit the live transmission of Premier League football matches in pubs by means of foreign decoder cards," declared Julie Kokott.
Such opinions have no legal force, but the full court follows the advice in about 80% of cases.
The league's existing arrangement allows selected broadcasters to screen matches and "exploit them economically within their respective broadcasting areas, generally the country in question", according to the advocate general.
Licensed broadcasters encrypt satellite signals, with subscribers needing a decoder card to access them.
Ms Murphy took advantage of an offer to UK pubs to use imported cards.
And the advocate general said this was in line with the aims of the EU single market - a border-free zone for goods and services.
The Premier League has already taken action against two suppliers of foreign satellite equipment and a group of pub landlords who used imported decoding equipment to show English Premier League games and avoided the commercial premises subscription fees for Sky.
The European judges have been considering Ms Murphy's case for seven months since the opinion was released and are taking into account EU directives across several areas.