The São Paulo Court of Justice confirmed the R$9.9 million fine imposed on Globo by Procon for misleading advertising in the 2019 Brazilian Football Championship.
That year, part of Palmeiras’ games and all of Athletico Paranaense’s games were not broadcast on the Premiere channel, Globo’s football pay-per-view service, for lack of a financial agreement with the teams. The agreement with Palmeiras only took place in May, with the championship in progress.
The fine was imposed by Procon, as the consumer protection body considered that the broadcaster had promised in its advertising to show all games, which did not happen. Neither did the due rebate or refund of values.
Globo sought justice, but was defeated in the first instance last year, a decision confirmed this Wednesday (16) by the judges of the São Paulo Court of Justice.
“The broadcaster failed to comply with the duty of information and transparency by offering a service that it did not yet know if it could perform, that is, the transmission of all games”, said the judge Oswaldo Luiz Palu, rapporteur of the case at the TJ. “Months after the start of the championship, there was still publicity with the fallacious offer.”
Globo, which can still file a new appeal, said in the process that it always dealt with the issue “in a serious and transparent way with subscribers, disclosing all information about negotiations with clubs”.
According to the broadcaster, “even before the start of the competition, it was a well-known fact and widely publicized to subscribers that Globo held the broadcasting rights in the Premiere of only 18 of the 20 competing clubs”, he told the Court.
“Any consumer, uncertain about the outcome of negotiations still in progress, could not sign Premiere for the 2019 season or immediately request the cancellation of the subscription, definitively and without any charge.”
Globo stated that there was a communication failure in only a few pages on Premiere’s internet, which referred to the broadcast of “all games”, but which were corrected immediately after being identified.
The judge said that the media coverage of the lack of agreement with the clubs for the broadcast “did not exempt Globo from providing clear and ostensible information to the public and its subscribers”.
“Now, the fan/consumer believed in the offer that was shown to him, a product of the trust placed in the one that claims to hold the title of the largest Brazilian television group”.
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