SEAT PAGINE GIALLE/CECCHI GORI COMMUNICATIONS
PRESS RELEASE
PRESS RELEASE
Investigation into Seat's acquisition of TMC
At its meeting on 9 November the Competition Authority resolved to begin an investigation into the Seat Pagine Gialle and the Cecchi Gori Communication (CGC) companies to see whether Seat's acquisition of CGC might create or strengthen a dominant position that could eliminate or substantially reduce competition on the relevant markets.
The acquisition will be examined in terms of all the activities of the Telecom group, to which Seat now belongs, as this is the first case in Italy of convergence between telecommunications and television broadcasting. CGC owns two television networks: TMC and TMC2. This acquisition appears likely to introduce substantial changes not only on the markets on which the Telecom group and the CGC company currently operate, but also on developing markets which are mainly for the supply of interactive services via television and the transmission of traditional television programmes via the Internet.
The acquisition was notified in August but the Competition Authority deemed it necessary to request further information before taking action. This information was submitted in September and October but it failed to offer sufficient detail to enable the Authority to exclude the possibility of anti-competitive effects on the various markets, especially the new ones.
The investigation must be completed within 45 days of the date of the resolution.
Rome, 10 November 2000