The English Premier League has been awarded nearly £157 million ($213million) by an High Court of Justice in London including interest and costs over the collapsed media rights deal with Chinese broadcaster, PPTV.
In 2019, PP Sports owned by Suning Holdings Group who also own Inter Milan, signed a broadcasting agreement with the English soccer’s top-flight league set to run for three seasons, 2019-2022.
PP Sports defaulted on payments to the Premier League in March 2020. The Chinese streaming platform was due to pay the Premier League two separate instalments of $210.3 million (for live rights) on March 1, 2020 and $2.67 million (for clips rights) on June 1, 2020, but failed to do so which led to the termination of the deal by the Premier League six months later in September 2020 just a year into the three years broadcasting rights deal.
Following a hearing in November, Justice Peter Fraser ruled in favour of the league and ordered PPTV to pay the full outstanding amount of $212.97 million including interest and court costs. ‘According to the terms of the agreement, any late payment was to accrue interest at two per cent above the base rate set by Barclays Bank’.
The Premier League confirmed the decision by the High Court in a statement and also confirmed that the league will now begin the process of recovering the fees owed by PP Live.
A Premier League statement read: “The Premier League welcomes the judgment handed down by the High Court today relating to non-payment of fees by PPLive, its former broadcast partner in China.
“The Premier League will robustly enforce its contractual rights when it has no other option available.
“The League notes the judge’s view that PPLive had “no real prospect of success” defending the claim. The bar is high for a summary judgment application and this decision highlights the strength of the League’s case.
“The League will now begin the process of recovering the fees and costs owed by PPLive.”
