SOCCER: ANTITRUST AUTHORITY PENALIZES LEAGUE FOR COMPETITION-RESTRICTING AGREEMENT IN THE MARKETING OF TV RIGHTS FOR THE 2007-2008 SERIES B CHAMPIONSHIP
PRESS RELEASE
PRESS RELEASE
SOCCER: ANTITRUST AUTHORITY PENALIZES LEAGUE FOR COMPETITION-RESTRICTING AGREEMENT IN THE MARKETING OF TV RIGHTS FOR THE 2007-2008 SERIES B CHAMPIONSHIP
The size of the 102 thousand euro fine is commensurate with the proceeds of the association
On December 16, 2009, the Autorità Garante della Concorrenza e del Mercato ruled that the Soccer League had prevented broadcasting services from acquiring rights for the 2007/2008 Series B Championship games. The live television broadcasting of matches was severely limited as a result, to the detriment of both broadcasters and consumers. The Antitrust Authority found the League's conduct to constitute a competition-restricting agreement punishable by a 102,000 euro fine, which was based, in accordance with regulations, on the proceeds of the association itself.
The investigatory proceeding was launched on April 10, 2008, in order to determine whether the League had in fact restricted the capacity of Series B Championship soccer teams to engage in the independent marketing of broadcasting rights for the games.
The documentation gathered during the course of the proceeding enabled the Antitrust Authority to establish that the Soccer League, after opting for the collective marketing of broadcasting rights during a meeting, proceeded to use its pivotal role and reputation to enforce this decision by issuing rebukes and warnings against sports associations and broadcasters that failed to respect this decision. The Soccer League also leveraged its role as the manager of collective resources in order to exert influence on individual sports associations.
Powers conferred to it by temporary regulations were exploited to promote collective sales by denying authorizations for individual sales, thereby draining all of the substance out of regulatory provisions that were originally intended to protect the negotiating autonomy of the clubs during the temporary period.
Regardless of the difficulties encountered during the collective negotiation of Championship rights, according to the Antitrust Authority, the League put up intense resistance when several Series B sports associations requested permission to market the rights for specific Championship games autonomously. When various associations proceeded to sell the rights for some matches in spite of these protests, the League reacted with harsh rebukes and reminders about the collectively-agreed prohibition on individual sales. This position remained unchanged well into the season, even after it had become clear that the probability that rights would be sold in a centralized manner had become negligible or non-existent.
As a result, not only did the goals envisioned for centralized sales fail to be achieved - high visibility and correspondingly high economic returns - but the clubs themselves were also denied any residual margins of visibility or profit.
The agreement deprived several communications operators of television content that would have enriched their own program offerings in a fundamental manner, given that access to soccer rights represents a key factor in the development of pay television and the ability to attract new users. Consumers also suffered negative effects because of how only a meager number of matches of the 2007/2008 Series B Championship were broadcasted live, with the overwhelming majority of the games receiving no television coverage whatsoever.
Out of the 462 games involved in the Championship, only 16 (equal to 3%) were broadcasted live. The sales of rights for a good portion of these, furthermore, were not contracted by individual clubs until after the Antitrust Authority launched its investigatory proceeding.
Rome, 28 December 2009