Dismissal of the appeal for violation of the Unfair Competition Act

Facts

The Federal Tribunal was seized of a criminal appeal by A. and B. against a judgment of 9 December 2011 of the Criminal Appeals Court of the Vaud Cantonal Tribunal. The latter had convicted them for an infringement of the Federal Act against Unfair Competition (UCA) for having proposed a system for sharing access cards to encrypted programs broadcast by the companies Société d'Edition de Canal Plus, Canal+ Distribution SAS, Nagra France SAS and Nagravision SA.

A. and B. contested this decision, requesting the termination of the criminal proceedings against them and the annulment of the conviction for damages.

Considerations

The Federal Tribunal dismissed the appeal. It considered that the appellants had not reproduced the programs of the respondents by a technical process of reproduction within the meaning of Art. 5 let. c UCA, as they had merely decrypted the encrypted signals to which they had access thanks to official subscription cards, without reproducing the encryption system itself.

Furthermore, the Federal Tribunal noted that even if the appellants had been able to allow their clients to benefit from the programs of the…