AGCM

At its meeting on 17 May 2017, the Italian Competition Authority resolved to approve the Guidelines of the National Professional Soccer League for the sale of audio-visual rights related to the Premier League football championship for the period 2018-2021.

The Authority's decision follows the non-approval decision of 25 January 2017 no. 26351, where certain critical issues were identified in the Guidelines concerning the tender rules, the relationship between the League and the assignee and the formation of the packages and the criteria for their structure.

Regarding the tender rules, the Authority observed that, overall, the critical issues identified have been removed from the newly formulated Guidelines, but there are still some provisions that need to be clarified in terms of the formulation of invitations to tender as regard participating subjects and the methods and times of awarding the contract.

Regarding the level of detail of the package creation criteria, the Authority deemed that it should be assessed in light of the need to provide a minimum amount of information required to allow an assessment of compliance with the founding principles of Melandri Decree, as well as to its restrictions. The Authority therefore advocated the adoption of a sales method such as to foster an effective comparison between multiple distribution platforms (digital terrestrial, satellite and internet), stimulating the development of competitiveness in downstream markets, in particular pay-TV. These methods enable effective competition, in particular with regard to the consumer, who can choose from among several competing offers without having to incur increased costs due to the need to take out multiple subscriptions. To this regard, the Authority approves the choice of the Guidelines to enhance broadcasting rights on the Internet platform, which are no longer considered ‘accessories’ to traditional platforms.

This is without prejudice to the Authority’s power to evaluate the compliance of calls for tender and the selling procedure for audio-visual rights subject to the National and European antitrust regulations and to Legislative Decree no. 9/2008 and to investigate any violations of the aforementioned regulations in the event that the National Professional Soccer League, upon the preparation of the packages and the final awarding of contracts, does not comply with the Authority's indications and that such conduct undermines competition in the acquisition of specific rights and in downstream markets, to the detriment of consumers.

Rome, 18 May 2017