A private investigator hired by Sky TV walked into a Co Offaly pub last Sunday and saw it was illegally screening an English Premier League match, a court has heard.
A local company, Five Jays Catering Ltd, and Jeanette Owens, the licensee of the Dew Inn on High Street in Tullamore, also known as The Bus Bar, were ordered to pay Sky UK Ltd €10,080 and were restrained from broadcasting Sky Sports.
The orders were made by Judge Karen Fergus in the absence of the defendants as they did not appear in Tullamore Circuit Court when the case was called yesterday.
Counsel for Sky UK told the court the infringements dated back to 2014 and a civil bill was issued in 2016.
Judge Fergus was told it was a case where there had been no interaction between the plaintiff and the defendants.
The company, formerly registered as Five Jays Ltd, had a registered office at Marian Place, Tullamore, Co Offaly.
Catherine O'Sullivan, policing operations manager with Sky, said the company owned the copyright to matches broadcast on Sky Sports and the pub did not have a contract with the TV company.
Ms O'Sullivan said Sky was seeking damages for 2014 and 2015 only, at €5,040 for each year, though the most recent infringement was last weekend. The total on the civil bill was €34,000.
David Hennessy, the private investigator for Sky, said he was in the pub last Sunday and could see the match between Tottenham Hotspur and Manchester United was starting.
After several moments a mobile phone rang at the bar and the caller was told they could not talk because the match was being run through the internet.
Mr Hennessy said he believed the stream was through the mobile phone and onto the television in the bar.
Granting the orders sought, Judge Fergus said the activity undertaken by the defendants was unfair to Sky and she had come across it before.
She also awarded costs to Sky.
