AGCM

PRESS RELEASE

INVESTIGATION INTO NUOVOIMAIE FOR AN ALLEGED ABUSE OF DOMINANT POSITION

The ICA launched investigations into NUOVOIMAIE with the aim to ascertain alleged abusive conducts in the copyright sector, that is related to the remunerations owed to artists (actors, singers, musicians, performers, conductors) by whoever exploits their audiovisual and musical recordings (for example, television and radio stations).

Until liberalization in 2012, NUOVOIMAIE was the sole intermediation company operating on the market. Therefore, the ICA’s proceedings are aimed at verifying whether NUOVOIMAIE infringed article 102 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFUE) by carrying out an alleged abuse of dominant position, hindering in various ways the operativeness of new competing companies entering the market.

In order to ascertain the mentioned circumstances, the ICA - with the aid of the ICA’s Special Unit of the Guardia di Finanza - carried out inspections at NUOVOIMAIE’s premises, as well as at the premises of IMAIE in liquidation, deemed in possession of useful elements for the investigation.

Rome, 19 April 2016