RTL Group says that the approval of a new tax law in Hungary has justified its decision to take the matter to the European Commission.
Portfolio reports that the Hungarian government has agreed to increase the top bracket of a controversial ad tax introduced earlier this year from 40% to 50%.
Applicable to companies with annual revenues of over HUF20 billion (€65.4 million), the higher rate will only affect RTL, which says its payments will now account for around 85% of revenue raised by the ad tax despite its share of the Hungarian ad market being only 15%.
Speaking to Reuters, RTL added that this demonstrated the discriminatory nature of the tax, which is mainly targeted at RTL and aimed at forcing it to leave the Hungarian market.
RTL took a €88 million impairment in August due to the tax and will decide if further write-downs are needed at the end of the year.