Medialivre filed a formal complaint with the Competition Authority (AdC) against RTP, SIC and TVI, accusing the three stations of anti-competitive practices and cartelization in the agreement signed with the candidates for the presidential elections for the broadcast of television debates on the three channels in open signal, of which DN reported first hand.
In the complaint presented, and to which DN had access, the company that owns CMTV and the Now channel asks for immediate precautionary measures to prevent the face-to-face meetings from taking place, as well as the opening of a sanctioning process against the television stations involved. Remember that, on Wednesday, October 29th, RTP, SIC and TVI guaranteed in a joint note that the debate model was accepted by all candidates and rejected the existence of “exclusivity”.
In the argument sent to the AdC – 111 points distributed over 15 pages -, Medialivre maintains that the three operators “agreed with the aim of eliminating competition and excluding other channels” from the model of presidential debatesin particular its own channels, “reserving the organization and transmission” of meetings between candidates among themselves.
According to Medialivre, the agreement between RTP, SIC and TVI constitutes “a horizontal collusive practice of an exclusive nature”, which violates the Competition Law and the principles of pluralism and equal treatment between television operators.
The company argues that, even though the three televisions retreated from their initial demand for exclusivity – which prompted prompt opposition from Medialivre, as DN reported -, the practical effect remains: “with or without exclusivity, Medialivre cannot, alone, organize a competing model of debates”.
Medialivre considers that the actions of the three stations “compromise the normal functioning of the television market” and “damage informative pluralism”, accusing them of forming a “de facto cartel” to control access to debates and reinforce their joint market power.
The owner of the cable channels CMTV and Now also invokes previous decisions by the Regulatory Entity for Social Communication (ERC) and public positions by the National Elections Commission (CNE) regarding a similar complaint regarding the model of debates in the last legislative elections, stressing that both recognized that the association of CMTV and News Now in the debates “would have increased the clarification of citizens”.
“The aim of the consultation between competing operators was to eliminate competition in access to the organization and transmission of presidential debates”, reads the document delivered by Medialivre to the AdC, which also cites the CNE’s opinion regarding the complaint filed about the legislative debates: “Elections are not business”.
In the final request, the company requests the Competition Authority to trigger precautionary measures and order the immediate suspension of the agreement between RTP, SIC and TVI “until a final decision on the merits of the case”preventing face-to-face encounters from taking place, and that initiate a sanctioning process to those three competing stations..
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