ECJ Rulings in Database Cases

The European Court of Justice handed out four closely linked judgments on 9 November 2004 concerning the exploitation of horse racing data and fixtures list data in betting coupons.

The European Court of Justice (the 'ECJ') handed down four closely linked judgments: C-203/02, the British Horseracing Board Ltd and Others v. William Hill Organisation Ltd. (the 'BHB Case'); C-46/02, Fixtures Marketing Ltd v. Oy Veikkaus Ab; C-338/02, Fixtures Marketing Ltd. v. Svenska Spel AB; and C-444/02, Fixtures Marketing Ltd v. Monomeles Protodikio . The last three of these, jointly known as the 'fixtures cases', were dealt with on 9 November 2004 and concerned the exploitation of horse racing data and fixtures list data in betting coupons.

In the judgements on these cases, the ECJ set for the first time, authoritative guidelines on the scope of database rights in the European Union.