Racecourse Association and (BHRB) British Horse Racing Broadcasting v OFT, 2005 CAT 29
Citation: Racecourse Association and (BHRB) British Horse Racing Broadcasting v OFT, 2005 CAT 29
Rule of thumb: If an association agrees an exclusive deal with a supplier, such as a broadcaster, is this a breach of competition law? No, this is deemed to serve a valid & justifiable purpose for the greater good of society so is not deemed to be a breach of competition law.
Judgment:
The Court in this case held that an exclusive agreement between the Racecourse Association and British Horse Racing Broadcasting (BHRB) to only allow the BHRB to film on the racecourse, and not allow any other broadcasters to do so, did not breach the refusal to supply doctrine because it served a legitimate purpose, ‘We conclude, therefore, that the central negotiation in which the Courses engaged was necessary for the achievement both by them and by ATR of the legitimate commercial objective of creating the new product that ATR proposed to exploit for the benfit of itself, the punters, the racecourse and racing generally. In our view, the evidence pointed to that conclusion and there was no reliable evidence supporting the different view that the OFT preferred, which appears to us to have been founded in theory rather than reality. We conclude that the MRA involved no infringement of the Chapter 1 prohibition’, (paragraph 175)
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