Saudi Arabia cancels BeIN Sports license for violating competition law

Saudi Arabia permanently canceled the license of the Qatari network BeIN Sports on Tuesday for violating competition law, a month after FIFA demanded that the kingdom take measures to protect the rights of the media against the Saudi radio station beoutQ that hacks the Qatari signal.

A Saudi court further decided to compel the BeIN company to pay a fine of R 10 million (about € 2.3 million), in addition to returning all the profits obtained as a result of the violation, according to the ruling published by the General Competition Authority.

According to the court, BeIN Sports violated the competition system by broadcasting UEFA exclusive matches in 2016 and forced customers who wanted to subscribe only to the sports package to subscribe to one that includes non-sports channels.

In addition, he pointed out that the chain violated competition law that prohibits “selling a product or service” on condition of buying another product and does not allow monopolistic practices.

BeIN Sports has the television rights to most major soccer tournaments in the world, including those of the Spanish League, the World Cup and the European Champions League.

Last July, FIFA, UEFA, Bundesliga, La Liga, Premier League, Lega Serie A and the Asia Club Champions League (AFC) They filed a joint statement against illegal broadcasts of their competitions by the beoutQ platform in Saudi Arabia.

Saudi Arabia and Qatar have had no diplomatic relations since June 2017, when the kingdom, along with other gulf countries, also imposed a commercial and financial blockade on the small emirate, which has caused problems in practically all commercial sectors and has been the subject of litigation in courts and international organizations.