Freelance furore | Sports broadcast & production companies fined £4 million in freelance pay investigation

An investigation by the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) found some of the largest sports broadcast and production companies in the UK shared sensitive information about fees for freelance workers such as camera operators and sound technicians. Four companies – BT, IMG, ITV and BBC – have agreed to pay fines totalling £4,240,356.

These fines take into account discounts received by all four companies because they admitted to breaking the law and settled the case. For BT, IMG and ITV the fine is also lower than it would have been because, after they became aware of the investigation, they came forward about their involvement and assisted the CMA in its investigation under its leniency programme. Sky is exempt from a financial penalty as it alerted the CMA to its involvement, before the investigation had been launched.

The five companies investigated by the CMA often engaged freelancers to assist with the production and broadcasting of sports content such as major football games and rugby tournaments. The CMA found 15 instances where a pair of companies unlawfully shared sensitive information about pay with each other, including on day rates and pay rises.

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In most cases, the explicit aim was to coordinate how much to pay freelancers. For example, on one occasion a business told another they have “no intention of getting into a bidding war” but “want to be aligned and benchmark the rates”. In a separate instance, a company said they wanted to “present a united front” with its competitor.