Poland’s Office of Competition and Consumer Protection (UOKiK) has instituted antimonopoly proceedings over the sale of rights to broadcast matches played by the national football team in September.
In a statement, the Office says that,“when examining the case, the president was concerned about the way of fixing prices for broadcasting football elimination matches for the 2014 Football World Cup.”
Fans could follow the matches on PPV by paying PLN20 (€4.78) to a selected supplier.
Sportfive, a company that holds the rights to the broadcasts, granted the licence to selected undertakings to provide their transmission via PPV.
According to the UOKiK, its evidence clearly shows that Sportfive fixed the price paid by viewers to watch the matches at PLN20. This is its reason for initiating proceedings.
The 11 companies that may have disobeyed the law in their dealings with Sportfive include UPC Polska, Cyfrowy Polsat, Vectra and Multimedia.
Although such proceedings usually take up to five months, the UOKiK says that particularly complex cases can take longer.
Proven allegations can result in fines up to 10% of companies’ revenues in the year preceding the issuance of the decision.
