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Atresmedia fined for breaking merger conditions

November 18, 2015

From David Del Valle in Madrid

CNMC, the Spanish competition watchdog, has fined Atresmedia €2.8 million for failing to meet the government-imposed conditions approved in 2012 on the merger between Antena 3 and La Sexta.

According to the CNMC, Atresmedia has broken the merger conditions concerning the advertising market between October 2012 and February 2014 and the acquisition of TV content between September 2012 and November 2014.

As for advertising, Atresmedia has been accused of limiting the freedom of advertisers at the time of acquiring advertising packages and the access of third party operators to the advertising market. The company was marketing advertising packages including all its channels, a practice not permitted by the CNMC.

As for the acquisition of content, Atresmedia was implementing concentration practices, according to the CNMC, limiting free competition in the market.

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