A panel of three Appeal Court judges in London, heard the latest stage of the legal process that began back in 2000, when the British Horseracing Board initiated action against William Hill for using information extracted from the BHB database, specifically lists of runners and riders.
The BHB, which is looking to charge bookmakers for the use of data, asked for a final judgement on the case after it was referred to the European Court of Justice.
Last November, the ECJ ruled that William Hill should not have to pay for using the lists of runners and riders.
Yesterday, the Appeal Court judges discussed whether the final declarations of the runners and riders constitutes data that is created or assembled by the BHB and were unanimous on establishing that the European Court of Justice had not examined the entire process through which final declarations are produced.
The BHB\’s counsel outlined the complexities of the declarations process as he attempted to explain why the declarations should be regarded as part of a larger procedure where data is collected rather than created.
“The process of obtaining the data, the creation of the fixture list, is irrelevant. The resources deployed in the checking procedure do not matter. The ECJ has very clearly decided that this exercise does not amount to a sufficient cost in obtaining the data,” told the court, William Hill\’s counsel.
Lord Justices Clarke, Pill and Jacob are expected to make a ruling upon the case by the end of next month.
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