Court of Justice of the European Communities (including Court of First Instance Decisions)

ORDER OF THE PRESIDENT OF THE COURT

31 August 2010 (*)

(Accelerated procedure)

In Case C-228/10,

REFERENCE for a preliminary ruling under Article 267 TFEU from the High Court of Justice of England and Wales, Chancery Division (United Kingdom), made by decision of 16 April 2010, received at the Court on 10 May 2010, in the proceedings

Union of European Football Associations (UEFA),

British Sky Broadcasting Ltd

v

Euroview Sport Ltd,

THE PRESIDENT OF THE COURT,

having regard to the proposal from J. Malenovský, Judge Rapporteur,

after hearing the Advocate General, J. Kokott,

makes the following

Order

1 This reference for a preliminary ruling concerns the interpretation of Articles 2(a), (b) and (e), 4(a) and 5 of Directive 98/84EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 20 November 1998 on the legal protection of services based on, or consisting of, conditional access (OJ 1998 L 320, p. 54), of Articles 2, 3, 5(1) and 6(2)(a), (b) and (c) and 6(3) of Directive 2001/29/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 22 May 2001 on the harmonisation of certain aspects of copyright and related rights in the information society (OJ 2001 L 167, p. 10), of Article 1(a) and (b) of Council Directive 89/552/EEC of 3 October 1989 on the coordination of certain provisions laid down by Law, Regulation or Administrative Action in Member States concerning the pursuit of television broadcasting activities (OJ 1989 L 298, p. 23), as amended by Directive 97/36/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 30 June 1997 (OJ 1997 L 202, p. 60), of Article 1(2)(a), (b) and (c) of Council Directive 93/83/EEC of 27 September 1993 on the coordination of certain rules concerning copyright and rights related to copyright applicable to satellite broadcasting and cable retransmission (OJ 1993 L 248, p. 15), of Article 7 of Directive 2006/115/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 12 December 2006 on rental right and lending right and on certain rights related to copyright in the field of intellectual property (OJ 2006 L 376, p. 28), and of Articles 34 TFEU, 36 TFEU, 56 TFEU and 101 TFEU.

2 The reference has been made in the context of a dispute between the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) and British Sky Broadcasting Ltd, on the one hand, and Euroview Sport Ltd, on the other, concerning an order directing the latter to cease selling, advertising, hiring out or otherwise engaging in commercial activities in the United Kingdom in relation to decoder cards intended for other Member States and providing access to televised coverage of UEFA Champions League and Europa League matches.

3 The national court requests the Court of Justice to apply an accelerated procedure to the case pursuant to the first paragraph of Article 104a of its Rules of Procedure, in order that this case may be addressed together with Cases C-403/08 and C-429/08, brought before the Court on 17 and 29 September 2008 respectively, which were joined for the purposes of the written and oral procedure and of the judgment by order of the President of the Court of 3 December 2008.

4 Under the first paragraph of Article 104a of the Rules of Procedure, at the request of the national court, the President of the Court of Justice may exceptionally decide, on a proposal from the Judge-Rapporteur and after hearing the Advocate General, to apply an accelerated procedure derogating from the provisions of the Rules of Procedure to a reference for a preliminary ruling, where the circumstances referred to establish that a ruling on the question put to the Court is a matter of exceptional urgency.

5 In support of its request, the national court points out that the facts and legal issues raised in Cases C-403/08 and C-429/08 and those in the present case are similar, while noting that the present case also involves additional legal questions and raises a new legal problem. In its view, the three cases could be legitimately examined together, unless the first two cases would be delayed significantly as a result.

6 It should be noted, in that regard, that the procedure under Article 104a of the Rules of Procedure is a procedural instrument intended to address matters of exceptional urgency. The national court has not raised a matter of such urgency in the present case, and such a procedure cannot be used solely to enable two or more cases to be dealt with jointly.

7 The request made by the national court seeking that the accelerated procedure under the first paragraph of Article 104a of the Rules of Procedure be applied to Case C-228/10 must consequently be rejected.

On those grounds, the President of the Court hereby orders:

The request made by the High Court of Justice of England and Wales, Chancery Division (United Kingdom), seeking that the accelerated procedure under the first paragraph of Article 104a of the Rules of Procedure of the Court be applied to Case C-228/10 is rejected.

[Signatures]

* Language of the case: English.

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