(Alliance News) - The Italian Antitrust Authority has closed its investigation into some clauses of the agreement between Telecom Italia Spa and DAZN on the broadcasting of Serie A soccer league matches in the three-year period 2021-2024.

Based on the revenues derived to the two companies from the marketing of TV rights for the 2021-2022 season, the Authority fined TIM EUR760,776.82 and DAZN EUR.7.2 million. For the three-year period 2021-2024, following the tender called by the Football League in 2021, the owner of the TV rights is DAZN.

According to the Authority, the agreement, which provided for exclusivity in favor of TIM and the prohibition of partnerships with its competitors in the telecommunications sector, "could lead to detrimental effects on the ongoing competitive dynamics in the TLC sector in the markets for connectivity services and the retail sale of pay TV services. Indeed, under the agreement, TIM marketed a bundled offer that could not be replicated by its competitors, including TimVision and Dazn content and connectivity service. It was, moreover, an offer likely to deprive TIM's competitors, active in the electronic communications markets, of the possibility of associating its connectivity services with particularly valuable content, such as the rights to watch the Serie A championship matches for the three-year period 2021-2024, limiting its ability to exert competitive pressure on TIM itself. Moreover, some clauses appeared likely to limit Dazn's commercial options in relation to the development of audiovisual content offerings on other technological platforms."

The effects of the agreement, with particular reference to those arising from exclusivity, lasted about a month, as they were sterilized by the Authority's timely initiation of the preliminary investigation procedure on July 6, 2021.

"The contextual precautionary sub-proceeding, which occurred close to the start of the first football season of the three-year period 2021-2024, in fact prevented the continuation of the effects of the agreement, as in August 2021 TIM and Dazn discontinued the application of the contested clauses. The original agreement was then replaced by a new contract, signed on August 4, 2022, which eliminated the exclusivity altogether," the Authority continues.

This allowed all operators involved, including Sky, to enter into partnerships with DAZN and, therefore, to offer in combination connectivity services and audiovisual content related to the Serie A soccer championship.

TIM trades in the green by 0.2 percent at EUR0.26 per share.

By Chiara Bruschi, Alliance News reporter

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