The Italian Competition Authority (ICA) has granted conditional authorisation for the purchase of Italiana Editrice by Gruppo Editoriale L'Espresso. In particular, the ICA imposed on the acquiring company to transfer the management of local advertising intended for the local pages of the Genoa and Turin editions of the La Repubblica daily newspaper to a third, independent party.

According to the powers assigned to it by Law no. 287 of 10 October 1990, the ICA assessed the evidence relating to the overall operation of the markets involved in the concentration transaction, concluding that this would have led to the creation of a monopoly or almost monopoly in the markets of local advertising in the daily newspapers in the provinces of Genoa and Turin; this would have strengthened the dominant position that Italiana Editrice already holds in these markets to the significant and lasting detriment of competitive dynamics. In its assessment, in addition to the market shares, the ICA took into account the existence of alternative operators to Gruppo Editoriale L'Espresso and Italiana Editrice, their characteristics, the market power held by local advertisers, the trends in prices applied by Gruppo Editoriale L'Espresso and Italiana Editrice for advertisements, the competitive pressure from alternative means of communication to daily newspapers, as well as the possibility that new operators enter the local advertising markets for daily newspapers in the provinces of Genoa and Turin.

The corrective measures required for authorising the merger have been identified based on a specific proposal by Gruppo Editoriale L'Espresso, taking into account the expected effect of these measures on the competition criticalities found, the characteristics of the operators identified as concessionaires of local advertising for the local pages of the Genoa and Turin editions of the La Repubblica, as well as the specific contractual clauses governing the relationship between these entities and Gruppo Editoriale L'Espresso.

With reference to the other markets involved in the merger operation, i.e. those of newspaper and magazine publishing, publishing products distribution and advertising, on launching the investigation the ICA had already established that the concentration transaction between Gruppo Editoriale L'Espresso and Italiana Editrice is not capable of creating or strengthening a dominant position such as to eliminate or substantially and permanently reduce competition. With particular reference to the daily news press market, the ICA, competent to evaluate the effects on competitive dynamics but not those on information pluralism, has conducted a wide-ranging inquiry into market shares (calculated on the basis of the sales made and not circulations), the presence of significant competitors and their industrial characteristics, and gave the main Italian publishers the opportunity to express their opinions on the merger.

Rome, 9 March 2017