The BHB suffered the latest of a series of court defeats on the issue of pre-race data, when a High Court judge ruled that the BHB had abused a dominant market position when it attempted to charge the At The Races service for the use of the data.
As reported by the Racing post, High Court judge Mr Justice Etherton also found that the BHB had adopted a policy of excessive and discriminatory pricing in breach of competition law.
The BHB demanded that ATR, which pays the Press Association for the supply of a pre-race data feed for ATR\’s service to overseas bookmakers, enter into an additional license with the BHB to pay for database rights.
After the European Court of Justice ruled in November 2004 that the BHB had no database rights, ATR asked the BHB to clarify the basis on which it sought payment.
In response, the BHB said that unless ATR agreed to pay license fees to the BHB, it would instruct PA to terminate its supply of pre-race data to ATR.
ATR then brought the current proceedings, claiming that the threat by the BHB to prevent PA from supplying pre-race data to ATR constituted an abuse of a dominant position under EU and UK competition laws.
Lawyers for ATR said it was the first time a court in the UK had found that a business practice is in abuse of a dominant market position, a landmark in competition law.
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