AGCM

PRESS RELEASE

TV RIGHTS: ANTITRUST AUTHORITY APPEALS TO COUNCIL OF STATE AGAINST TAR RULING THAT NULLIFIES RESOLUTION ON LEAGUE COMMITMENTS

In today's meeting of the Autorità Garante della Concorrenza e del Mercato, a unanimous decision was made to contest the Lazio TAR (Regional Administrative Court) ruling that nullifies the Antitrust Authority resolution on Soccer League commitments regarding television rights. The Board's decision was inspired by the reasons that were used to justify this ruling.
According to the Antitrust Authority, the TAR identified two purported faults in the Antitrust Authority resolution. The first of the two is procedural in nature and concerns the consultation on commitments.  After the League had adapted its commitments to reflect market testing, the commitments, according to the TAR, should have been subjected to re-confirmation by all interested parties. The Antitrust Board has been aware of this issue for some time now, and this particular phase of the process tends to be excluded in the interest of avoiding excessive prolongation of this simple and streamlined procedure.
The second issue concerns the commitments that were accepted and made binding by the Antitrust Authority and their overall extent, which the TAR deemed to be insufficient for rectifying the contestation reported in the measure that launched the investigatory proceeding. The Antitrust Board maintains that the TAR's intervention was based on purely economic aspects of the TV rights in question and failed to consider any accurate definition of the market involved.

Rome - May 13, 2010