If the clubs and institutions of football have a lot to lose from the cessation of competition in France (since mid-march and the implementation of the containment measures against the coronavirus), fans of football are also grey. Worse, for subscribers to the tv channels Canal+ and beIN Sports, the official broadcast of the League 1 and League 2, the invoice remained the same, despite the offer summary. An unacceptable situation for a number of them, which now require that the two platforms pay back dues for months without football (the offer of beIN Sports is at 15 euros per month, and up to 40 euros for the pack "sports" Channel+ ).
Two lawyers, Masters, Vincent Durand, and Pierre-Henri Julliard, bring together as well for several days with complaints of subscribers, to launch a collective action against the two strings, and to obtain refunds of the months of march, April and may. "The subscribers to Canal+ and beIN Sports have seen private matches for League 1 and League 2 who would have had to be distributed between the 14 march and the end of the month of may, without any financial compensation to them is proposed ", they explain in a press release relayed by Le Parisien.
Read also When the coronavirus is changing the rules of football
The two magistrates also recall that " the broadcasters have categorically refused to pay the balance of the broadcasting rights of the season, and put in danger the balance of many clubs, claiming that the consideration for the payment of the rights was not present ". An attitude of "illogical and unfair" for one of the two lawyers. "It's still their money [one of the subscribers, editor's NOTE], which allows the Channel to pay duties as a tv ", he says in The Progress.
"Absence of the execution of an obligation"
For the procedure to work, the Masters Vincent Durand and Pierre-Henri Julliard will plead with a legal argument "simple" : "non-execution of an obligation ". "It promises to broadcast, but it does not broadcast. This is the same reason that Channel has relied on to break his contract with the League, " said one of them. As recalled by Le Parisien, the UFC-que choisir had already prompted a few weeks ago the subscribers of the two diffusers to require the repayment of subscriptions.
Read also Didier Quillot : "In this crisis, it is the virus that command"
If this collective action happens to its purposes, two options are offered to subscribers : keep the sum of the repayments, or donate it to his favorite club in League 1 or League 2, to help cope with the crisis. Any subscriber to Canal+ and/or beIN Sports during the last three months may join the group by registering on the site V for Verdict.
a "Suspension of the championship of #Ligue1 and Ligue2 : a collective action has been put in place to request the refund of the subscription TV"
Via @francetvsport & @paul_gfrd https://t.co/W8CXDqAFiQ
— V for Verdict (@vpourverdict) May 30, 2020
