The Italian Competition Authority AGCM has fined the streaming service DAZN and Telecom Italia a total of almost €8 million for their agreement on TV rights for Serie A for the period 2021-2024.
According to AGCM, the agreement, which provided for exclusivity in favour of TIM – the TV rights are held by DAZN – and the prohibition of partnerships with its competitors in the telecommunications sector, could have had harmful effects on the competitive dynamics of the connectivity services markets and the retail sale of pay-TV services.
In fact, under the agreement, TIM marketed a bundle offer that cannot be replicated by its competitors, including TimVision and DAZN content 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, limiting the ability to exercise competitive pressure against TIM itself. 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 agreement lasted only a month thanks to a procedure launched by AGCM in July 2021, and TIM and DAZN subsequently entered into a new contract in August last year.
TIM was fined €760,776.82 and DAZN €7,240,250.84 for the infringement, based on revenues derived for the marketing of TV rights for the 2021-2022 season.
