ANTITRUST AUTHORITY CALLS FOR REVIEW OF RULES GOVERNING SALE OF FOOTBALL RIGHTS: THEY DO NOT FULLY ENSURE COMPETITION

Lega Calcio has only partially complied with the guidelines authorized by the Authority. Report to Government and Parliament

The rules governing the broadcasting rights to sports events should be reviewed because they do not fully guarantee competition amongst operators. This is the Antitrust Authority’s message in a report sent to the Government and Parliament in which it emphasizes that the guidelines approved by the Authority, as stipulated in the law, have not in fact been followed fully by Lega Calcio (the Football League). Initial application of Legislative Decree no. 9/2008 has thus demonstrated there are critical factors and elements of uncertainty that may compromise the correct functioning of competition in the acquisition of radio and television rights and may therefore undermine the objectives of the rules.

The Authority points out that the Decree replaced a system in which broadcasting rights belonged to the individual organizers of the events with a new system based on joint ownership of rights by the organizer and all the participants in the competition. Centralization of the sale of broadcasting rights is contrary to antitrust rules and may be allowed on an exceptional basis only if there is a guarantee of effective control and verification by the competent institutions including the Antitrust Authority.

The mechanism foreseen in the law has however not been working: Lega Calcio, following the Authority’s approval of the guidelines, set up procedures that do not fully comply with those approved. In the Authority’s view, participants in the competitive procedures have not been guaranteed conditions of absolute equity, transparency and non-discrimination, resulting in a situation where some operators are unable to acquire the rights in question: the decree’s provisions on unsold rights, whereby the individual clubs could then immediately proceed to sell such rights themselves, have not been implemented. Furthermore, the League took these steps immediately before the competition began: so the Authority discovered the irregularities only after the start of the championship and thus in a context in which the assignments had already had their effect on both advertisers and consumers.

In the Authority’s view, in order to reconcile the effectiveness and timeliness of the Antitrust Authority’s intervention with the market’s need for certainty as to the outcome of the assignment procedures, it is necessary that the joint sale of sports broadcasting rights, representing an overriding of antitrust rules, should take place within an overall regulatory framework that ensures that the parties involved comply with Legislative Decree no. 9/2008 and the guidelines approved by the Authority.

Rome, 13 September 2008