AGCM

PRESS RELEASE

PUBLISHING:  ANTITRUST AUTHORITY LAUNCHES INVESTIGATION INTO POSSIBLE ABUSE OF DOMINANT POSITION BY AUDIPRESS

E Polis files complaint regarding the failure to publish market surveys since second semester 2008. The conduct of Audipress may have created competitive disadvantages for newer publishers.

In a meeting on April 8th, 2010, the Autorità Garante della Concorrenza e del Mercato decided to launch investigatory proceedings to determine whether Audipress abused its dominant position in the market for survey services for the printed press, with serious consequences for competition in the advertising market.
The decision was made in light of a report by E Polis, a company that publishes nineteen local newspapers through the free pay formula (most of the printed newspapers are distributed free of charge, only a small number are sold in newsstands).
According to the complaint, Audipress failed to publish the results from the 2008/II, 2009/I and 2009/II reader surveys on dailies and periodicals, and the results of such surveys are critical for the determination of advertising rates. In February 2009, Audipress informed editors and the market at large that it no longer intended to publish the usual results (in reference to the 2008/II survey). At the same time, each individual publisher was discretely provided with reader data for its own publication and asked not to share this information with third parties.  The data, as the product of new survey methods that were still being tested, was allegedly unsuitable for comparison with existing data. Despite its repeated requests for the full body of data, which E Polis needed for setting its advertising rates, Audipress reasserted its previous claims and insisted that its refusal was consistent with the conditions of their contract.
As a result, the 2008/I version remains the most recent reader data available for dailies and periodicals, and first semester 2008 data is simply too outdated for estimating the current reading levels of these publications.
According to the Antitrust Authority, Audipress's conduct may have had a negative impact on newcomers to the publishing sector, who found themselves unable to capitalize on the positive results of innovative offers and new distribution methods during a generalized contraction in the printed press market.


Rome - April 15th, 2010