The Office of Competition and Consumer Protection will examine the concentration of ITI and Canal+ media groups. This is the first time undertakings have requested the European Commission to refer the transaction to the Polish Antitrust Authority

The European Commission and the national antitrust authorities have the power to examine the impact of mergers and acquisitions on the market. The community dimension is the basic condition determining if a given transaction is considered by the national antitrust authority or the European Commission. The European Commission examines the transactions whose total worldwide turnover of its all participants amounts to at least EURO 2.5 bln whereas the President of UOKiK is the competent authority in concentration cases, which have or may have impact in the territory of the Republic of Poland and are not of the community dimension.

However, the participants to the transaction of a community dimension have the right to submit the EC with an application to have the concentration impact examined by their member state. It is possible provided the transaction may have a significant impact on the competition in a given state. Under such circumstances, the Commission may refer the case to the national antitrust authority, which can grant a consent to assess the impact of a given transaction. Undertakings rarely decide to file such applications.

This regards the concentration covering two transactions (first consisting in taking a joint control by two media groups, Canal+ and ITI over TVN; the other – taking a joint control by Canal+ and TVN over the pay television – Cyfra+ and ITI Neovision), which was referred today by the European Commission to the Polish antitrust authority.

Canal+ Group belongs to Vivendi, the international group. It operates mainly in France and deals with the production, distribution and marketing of tv channels on any types of platforms. In Poland it operates as an operator rendering services of pay satellite tv – Cyfra+.

ITI Group - International Trading and Investment Holdings – conducts its entartainment and media activity, in particular it offers tv transmissions, pay satellite tv, on-line services as well as operates in publishing industry. The group, among others, consists of TVN tv company (broadcaster of several licenced pay tv thematic channels) and ITI Neovision (the owner of Platform “N” satellite tv).

Taking into account the fact that the considered transaction will have the impact on the Polish market, the case was referred to UOKiK. According to the European Commission, the Polish antitrust authority has gained experience in assessing the tv and advertisement sectors, which is reflected in decisions already issued in this respect. UOKiK has agreed to consider the case.

The antitrust proceedings in this case will be instituted by the President of UOKiK following receipt of the application.

This has been the first case when an undertaking applied for taking the case by the Polish antitrust authority. Undertakings of other EU Memeber States rarely use the practice. In the years 1990-2011 this took place only in 67 cases out of nearly 5 thousand transactions notified to the European Commission. Then all such cases were referred to and considered by the national authorities.

For more information on the principles for merging undertakings, please find the special elaboration. UOKiK’s website includes information on all antitrust proceedings in concentration cases conducted by the Office.

Additional information for the media:
Małgorzata Cieloch, Spokesperson for UOKiK
Department of International Relations and Communication
Pl. Powstańców Warszawy 1, 00-950 Warszawa
Phone: +48 22 55 60 106
Fax: +48 22 826 11 86
E-mail: malgorzata.cieloch@uokik.gov.pl