PPLive, the former Chinese broadcaster of the English Premier League , has launched a countersuit against the league over their ripped-up television rights deal that ended abruptly last September. The Suning-owned sports broadcaster has asked for US$116 million in its counterclaim, which was filed at London’s High Court last Wednesday, legal news service Law360 reported on Monday. It was reported that the Chinese broadcasters would sue the league as early as last September. Retail giant Suning also own Italian football giants Inter Milan and the Chinese Super League side Jiangsu Suning. Both clubs have struggled financially in recent months, with reports of players being owed wages , while the Milan side are up for sale. The Chinese broadcaster and the English Premier League signed a deal for three seasons running until the end of the 2021-22 season for more than US$700 million, one of the largest of their global rights agreements. NBA and EPL China TV woes offer a vision of the future That was ripped up in September before the English Premier League had filed their own suit last October at the High Court claiming that they were owed more than US$210 million after an instalment was unpaid, while PPLive were trying to renegotiate their terms. PPLive has argued that their payments were made in advance and they are owed money for games that were not broadcast during the EPL’s three-month shutdown due to Covid-19 from last March to June. When games did return the new kick-off times and schedule were unfavourable to Chinese fans and viewing figures dropped, PPLive has complained. The @premierleague has agreed a 1-year broadcasting deal in China, just after weeks its previous deal was terminated. The new deal will allow Chinese fans to watch all 372 remaining matches of the current EPL season live from this weekend, more than half of them free. pic.twitter.com/zMnpZGbCvT — KPMG Football Benchmark (@Football_BM) September 18, 2020 “The Premier League seems to have adopted a double standard and treated a domestic UK broadcaster differently from a Chinese broadcaster,” PPLive Sports said in a statement to the Financial Times. “We have made our best efforts to reach a compromise, but we have been left with no choice but to take legal action.” Tencent stepped in to secure rights to broadcast this season’s English Premier League , agreeing a deal after the campaign kicked-off. European football could pay for banking on China cash It is understood that the Tencent deal for the season was secured for a much lower value than the PPLive agreement.