The online television service Molotov has been ordered by the Paris court to pay 8.5 million euros to the TF1 group for
"forgery"
and to cease broadcasting its channels, a second setback after its dispute with M6.
Read alsoStreaming: Molotov and the M6 group reached an agreement
By continuing the distribution of TF1, LCI or TFX for lack of agreement,
"Molotov has committed acts of infringement of neighboring rights of the audiovisual communication company"
, said the court in a decision issued on Friday and consulted by AFP , confirming information from Capital. Also condemned for
“trademark infringement”
with the reproduction of the logos of the channels, the French platform will have to stop broadcasting them within 15 days, under penalty of being fined 75,000 euros per day of delay. The three channels were inaccessible Monday on Molotov.
The streaming platform assured AFP that,
"despite numerous reminders"
, it had not received an offer from TF1 to allow it to distribute its channels.
Hoping to find a
“reasonable and balanced solution”
, Molotov said, however, that he feared that TF1, against the backdrop of a merger project with M6, could
“endanger free access to essential channels for millions of users”
.
The management of the TF1 group for its part indicated that
"discussions are still underway"
concerning the financial conditions for broadcasting on Molotov.
“Illicit” and “infringement of neighboring rights” distribution
On December 2, the company had already been ordered to pay more than 7 million euros to M6 in a similar case, before the two parties reached a broadcast agreement a few days later. The TF1 group accuses it in the same way of the
“illegal”
distribution of its channels, and of an
“infringement of neighboring rights”
since July 1, 2019, the expiry date of an experimental agreement signed in 2015. The platform, which denounces its side of
“restrictive practices of competition”
, sued TF1 before the commercial court of Paris, a procedure still in progress. Accusing M6 and TF1 of having broken their agreements
"in a brutal and abusive manner"
, Molotov had also seized the Competition Authority, which however rejected its complaint in 2020,
"for lack of sufficient evidence"
.
Launched in 2016, Molotov claims more than 17 million registered users, the daily Les Echos estimating at 4 million the number of its active subscribers.
Offering both free and paid offers, the platform was bought in November for 164.3 million euros by the American streaming service FuboTV.
/cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/prisa/4N3PH4ENIIHT3JOWUNLFYIAHMU.jpg)
