RTL and Talpa have finally accepted the ruling of the Netherlands Authority for Consumers and Markets (ACM) that the two companies should not be allowed to merge.
The two companies have withdrawn their appeal against January’s ruling.
Previously, Talpa CEO Pim Schmitz had said that Talpa would remain independent until at least 2026.
RTL and Talpa had brought forward remedies to counter ACM’s concerns over a potential dominance within the advertising market. The proposed remedy was to completely outsource the advertising sales from Talpa Network’s TV channels to Mediahuis Nederland. However, ACM informed the broadcasters that the market test did not sufficiently mitigate its concerns.
