Antitrust fines Dazn and Tim for the agreement on football rights – Corriere.it

The Antitrust has closed the investigation relating to some clauses of the agreement between Tim and Dazn on the broadcasting of the matches of the football championship ofthe Serie A in the three-year period 2021-2024.

Based on the revenues deriving to the two companies from the marketing of television rights for the 2021-2022 season, the Authority has sanctioned Tim for 760,776.82 euros and Dazn for 7,240,250.84 euros. It should be remembered that, for the three-year period 2021-2024, following the tender called by Lega Calcio in 2021, the holder of the TV rights Dazn.

According to the Authority the agreement, which provided for the exclusivity in favor of Tim and the prohibition of partnerships with its competitors in the telecommunications sector, it could have harmful effects on the competitive dynamics taking place in the TLC sector in the markets for connectivity services and the retail sale of pay television services – the Antitrust itself explains in a note -. Under the agreement, in fact, Tim has marketed a bundle offer that cannot be replicated by its competitors, including the contents of TimVision and Dazn and the connectivity service.

Furthermore, it was an offer likely to deprive Tim’s competitors, active in the electronic communications markets, of the possibility of associating particularly valuable content with their own connectivity services, such as the rights to watch Serie A matches A for the three-year period 2021-2024, limiting the ability to exert competitive pressure against Tim itself – continues the Authority -. Moreover, some clauses were suitable for limiting Dazn’s commercial options in relation to the development of audiovisual content offers on other technological platforms. The effects of the agreement, with particular reference to those deriving from the exclusivity, lasted about a month, as sterilized by the timely start of the preliminary investigation procedure by the Authority which took place on 6 July 2021 – continues the note -. The simultaneous precautionary sub-proceeding, which took place close to the start of the first football season of the three-year period 2021-2024, in fact prevented the effects of the agreement from continuing, as in August 2021 Tim and Dazn stopped applying the disputed clauses.