Andrew Verity (2007), Virgin Media

¶ … Andrew Verity (2007), Virgin Media and Sky One became involved in a dispute when the latter more than doubled their fees to the former for showing its programs on the network. Virgin Media has therefore decided to drop the Sky Basic package after this event, as the company is unwilling to pay the increased price. A further element of the dispute is the fact that Sky is allegedly unwilling to enter further negotiations regarding the issue. Indeed, the Virgin Media representative, Steve Burch, accused Sky of intentionally inflating their price in order to avoid reaching an agreement with Virgin. Furthermore, Sky has also been accused of bullying and arrogance in its negotiations with Virgin. Virgin Media however reacted by investigating other partnerships for its business, including HBO, Buena Vista and Channel Four, to replace the loss of Sky One.

The legal business issue appears to be one of retaining the bigger part of the market share. Sky One is unwilling to share with Virgin Media it substantial viewer base, basically as a result of Virgin's huge success in all its business ventures. It can be that Sky fears a future takeover or indeed a merger with the company, after which Sky One would lose its autonomous identity as a business. This may also be behind Sky's haste in buying a large amount of ITV shares after hearing of Virgin Media's intent to do so.

The legal issue can involve the fact that Sky was not acting in good faith when raising its price to levels that Virgin could not possibly accept. In turn, Burch, the Virgin spokesman, claims that his company had acted in good faith throughout the negotiations. Business ethics and honesty are therefore at issue here. Virgin's belief that Sky was not acting in good faith is substantiated by the fact that Sky was unwilling to carry negotiations any further, and also by the suddenly raised price of their partnership.

If the court is to be involved, it appears that the dispute will be settled outside of court procedure itself, as Virgin does not appear willing to take the matter as far as in-court proceedings. During an out-of-court procedure, each company's lawyer will be present at the procedure in order to settle the dispute out of court. A settlement amount is then agreed upon. The basic dispute to settle is one of ethical and honest business conduct in a partnership between two companies.

The dispute appears to be civil, as the government is not involved in the possible lawsuit. If choosing to go to court, the private party, Virgin Media, would file the suit and become the plaintiff. Furthermore, this is not a case where a specific crime was permitted, but rather a dispute involving one company attempting to suppress the rights of another through unfair and unethical business practices.

The main difference between criminal and civil cases is the punishment and burden of proof paradigms. If tried in a criminal court, the possible outcomes for Sky would be either a period of incarceration in a prison, or a fine paid to the government. A trial in a civil court would result in damages paid to the plaintiff, which in this case refers to Virgin Media. Civil cases never involve prison terms or executions.