It says that the man had an “undeniable” economic interest in providing links that allowed him to watch football matches
MADRID, 3 Nov. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The Supreme Court has agreed with Mediapro in concluding that the administrator of the company that operated Rojadirecta violated the intellectual property rights of the audiovisual group by providing, through its website, Internet links that made it possible to watch football matches live .
The magistrates have explained that the figure of “indirect infringement” allows responsibility to be extended “not only to those who directly carry out the infringing acts”, but also to those who “cooperate with this conduct” and to “whoever has a direct economic interest in the result of infringement and control capacity”.
According to the sentence, to which Europa Press has had access, the court has stressed that “being the sole partner of the company” its economic interest was “undeniable”, even more so when “it has been verified that the amount of profits achieved fluctuated between one and two million euros a year”.
Specifically, the Supreme Court has underlined that the income of this company –in the period between 2014 and 2019– “came from the billing of ‘online’ betting companies that paid for each Internet user who accessed their websites from the Rojadirecta website.
To this, the magistrates have added that the fact that the man was the sole administrator and had the access codes was “a clear manifestation of his ability to control the offending conduct.”
Thus, the Civil Chamber has corrected the conclusion reached by the Provincial Court of A Coruña, which had not found an indirect infringement in the conduct of the administrator of the company that ran the Rojadirecta website.
According to the resolution, for which Judge Ignacio Sancho Gargallo was the rapporteur, the man was the administrator of the Puerto 80 company, dedicated to exploiting the Rojadirecta website, where “links were provided that allowed access to live viewing or slightly deferred from the retransmission of the matches whose rights corresponded to Mediapro, by people who otherwise would not have been able to access that viewing”.
Mediapro filed a lawsuit against Puerto 80 Projects and its administrator for the exploitation of said website. The group requested the declaration of infringement of their intellectual property rights by both defendants, as well as the condemnation of the cessation of the infringing conduct and the prohibition to continue or resume that conduct. In addition, he claimed compensation for damages.
Although the Supreme Court has upheld one of Mediapro’s arguments, within the framework of the sentence, it has rejected another of the allegations raised by the company. Specifically, it has concluded that the evidence was not erroneously assessed and that, therefore, the company’s right to effective judicial protection was not violated.
