18 February 2015​

 

 

 

The Court ruled in favour of the Competition Authority (AdC) in the action brought by Controlinveste Media, Zon Optimus and Portugal Telecom, keeping the decision to forbid the operation to share Sport TV's capital stock unchanged.

In its ruling of January 28th, 2015, the Competition, Regulation and Supervision Court (TCRS) entirely dismissed the action brought by the three companies, which wanted the annulment of the decision made by the AdC to undertake a more in-depth investigation as part of the so-called "Triângulo" Operation.

The AdC decided to undertake a more in-depth investigation of the purchase by Controlinveste, Zon and PT of the joint control over Sport TV, Sportinveste Multimédia and PPTV - Publicidade de Portugal e Televisão, taking the view that there were serious doubts as to whether the operation might result in significant barriers to competition in the relevant identified markets.

The companies brought the action since they considered that the approval of the operation had occurred by tacit consent, something that the TCRS has now entirely dismissed.

The proposed operation had been notified on January 28th, 2013 and the AdC decided to undertake a more in-depth investigation on August 22nd, 2013.

On July 31st, 2014, the AdC forbade the operation in question, taking the view that it might create significant barriers to competition in the  premium sports contents broadcasting rights markets, in the premium sports contents pay-television market and in the downstream markets, while not deeming the commitments presented by the notifying parties suitable or sufficient to solve its competition-related concerns.

Prior to that, on December 2nd, 2013, the AdC had allowed the companies to make substantial amendments to the notification, due to changes in the shareholding structure of one of the notifying parties.