The Egyptian Competition Authority (ECA) reiterated on Wednesday that the deal between semi-governmental company CNE and Qatar's beIN Sports is considered null, even without a court verdict, an ECA statement read. In January, the ECA said that beIN Sports violated Article 8 of the protection of competition law by engaging in monopolistic practices by being the only broadcast authority with the right to domestically broadcast the majority of football competitions. The ECA said in its Wednesday statement that it is “unfortunate” that beIN Sports has ignored the complaint filed against it by the ECA in January and continues to pursue monopolistic practices that “harm the Egyptian citizen.” The statement added that beIN Sport subscriptions are now considered null and subscribers can get a refund for their subscriptions. CNE is the Egyptian company that collects subscriptions for beIN Sport viewership inside Egypt. In January, the ECA said it referred Confederation of African Football (CAF) President Issa Hayatou and the beIN sports group – which holds CAF broadcasting rights – to Egyptian prosecution for violating broadcast laws. The authority said in a statement on its website that Hayatou abused his position in granting Paris-based Lagardère Group broadcasting rights for African football competitions from 2017 to 2028 without opening up bidding for other companies. The ECA also said that beIN has cut services for Egyptian subscribers to the country's Nile Satellite, forcing them to switch to the Qatari Suhail satellite in order to watch African football matches.
