Section 3: Combating the illegal broadcasting of sporting events and competitions

I.-Where serious and repeated infringements of the audiovisual exploitation right provided for in Article L. 333-1 of this Code, of the neighbouring right of an audiovisual communication undertaking provided for in Article L. 216-1 of the Intellectual Property Code, insofar as the programme concerned consists of a sporting event or competition, or to a right acquired on an exclusive basis by contract or agreement for the audiovisual exploitation of a sporting competition or event, caused by the content of an online public communication service, the main purpose or one of the main purposes of which is the unauthorised broadcasting of sporting competitions or events, and in order to prevent or remedy a new serious and irremediable infringement of these same rights, the holder of this right may refer the matter to the president of the judicial court, ruling under the accelerated procedure on the merits or in summary proceedings, in order to obtain all proportionate measures likely to prevent or put an end to this infringement, against any person likely to contribute to remedying it.

The following may also apply to the president of the judicial court, under the conditions set out in the first paragraph of this I:

1° A professional sports league, where it markets the audiovisual exploitation rights to professional sports competitions likely to be or which are the subject of the infringement referred to in the same first paragraph;

2° An audiovisual communication company, where it has acquired an exclusive right, by contract or audiovisual exploitation agreement, to a sporting competition or event, whether this sporting competition or event is organised on French territory or abroad, where this right is likely to be or is the subject of the infringement referred to in the said first paragraph.

II.The president of the judicial court may in particular order, if necessary under penalty, the implementation, for each of the days appearing in the official calendar of the competition or sporting event, within the limit of a period of twelve months, of all proportionate measures, such as blocking, withdrawal or dereferencing measures, to prevent access from French territory to any online public communication service, identified or not identified on the date of the said order, that unlawfully broadcasts the sporting competition or event or whose main objective or one of whose main objectives is the unauthorised broadcasting of the sporting competition or event. The measures ordered by the President of the Commercial Court end, for each of the days on the official calendar of the competition or sporting event, at the end of the broadcasting authorised by the holder of the right to exploit the competition or sporting event.

The President of the Commercial Court may order any measure to publicise the decision, in particular its posting or publication in full or in extracts in the newspapers or on the online public communication services that he designates, in accordance with the procedures that he specifies.

III.-For the implementation of measures ordered on the basis of II relating to an online public communication service that has not yet been identified at the date of the order, and throughout the remaining duration of these measures, the rights holder concerned shall communicate to the Autorité de Régulation de la Communication Audiovisuelle et Numérique the identification data for the service in question, in accordance with the procedures defined by the authority.

When the authority's authorised and sworn agents mentioned in Article L. 331-14 of the Intellectual Property Code ascertain that the service mentioned in the first paragraph of this III is unlawfully broadcasting the competition or sporting event or has such broadcasting as its main objective or as one of its main objectives, the chairman of the authority or, if he is unable to do so, any member of the college of the authority designated by him, notifies the identification data of this service to the persons mentioned in the order provided for in II so that they can take the measures ordered with regard to this service for the duration of these measures still to run.

In the event of difficulty relating to the application of the second paragraph of this III, the Autorité de Régulation de la Communication Audiovisuelle et Numérique may ask the services to justify themselves. Without prejudice to such a request, the President of the Court of First Instance may be seised, in summary proceedings or on application, to order any measure suitable for stopping access to these services.

IV - The Autorité de Régulation de la Communication Audiovisuelle et Numérique (Audiovisual and Digital Communications Regulatory Authority) shall adopt model agreements which the holders of the rights referred to in I, the professional league, the audiovisual communications company which has acquired a right on an exclusive basis and any person likely to contribute to remedying the infringements referred to in I shall be invited to conclude. The agreement concluded between the parties specifies the measures they undertake to take to put an end to any infringements of the exclusive right to audiovisual exploitation of the sporting event or competition and the distribution of the cost of the measures ordered on the basis of II.