Sky challenges Ofcom’s end-of-contract notification rule in latest legal bid
British media giant Sky is trying to appeal a regulatory ruling obliged it to notify customers their contract with the telecoms giant was coming to an end.
Ofcom, the communications regulator, opened a probe into Sky in 2020 and found in 2022 that the media giant breached obligations to provide end-of-contract notifications to its pay-TV customers.
The regulator said it considers end-of-contract notifications to be an important consumer protection tool to prompt consumers to shop around for the best deal for their needs.
Ofcom mandates broadcast and mobile companies to send an end-of-contract notification to customers between 10 and 40 days before a customer’s contract expires.
Sky was found to not be sending the required end-of-contract notifications from when the obligations came into force on 15 February 2020.
The media giant tried to challenge the ruling by appealing to the Competition Appeal Tribunal (CAT).
The CAT upheld Ofcom’s decision in 2023, and despite finding Ofcom made minor errors in its decision-making, dismissed Sky’s request to overturn Ofcom’s findings and declined to remit the case back to the regulator for review.
Sky’s legal team submitted a request to the Court of Appeal in December 2024 seeking to appeal the Tribunal’s ruling.
The parties are now at the Court of Appeal in the Royal Court of Justice between Tuesday and Wednesday as Sky lays out its arguments for appeal.
A Sky spokesperson said: “We’re committed to providing our customers with the best possible service across all our products and offer an extensive range of options to help them manage their Sky TV services and bills.”
“We do not believe that Sky’s pay-TV service is an electronic communication service under the definition in the Communications Act 2003 and continue to seek legal review to clarify what has been a long running, genuine difference of views on interpretation of the law,” they added.
Ofcom declined to comment.
In a different legal challenge last year, the UK’s highest court found that Sky had acted in bad faith when it applied for its trademarks in a long-running dispute with US tech provider Skykick.
The UK media giant and the US tech company were battling over the use of ‘Sky’ in Skykick’s name, email, service and products, which the British company tired to argue that its infringed on its EU and UK trademarks.
After climbing through the legal ladders, the Supreme Court allowed Skykick’s appeal, ruling that the High Court was entitled to find Sky’s marks were applied for in bad faith and the Court of Appeal was wrong in its findings.