The Spanish antitrust regulator, CNMC, imposed a multi-million euro fine for anti-competitive behavior related to the marketing of television advertising to the Spanish national broadcasters Mediaset and Atresmedia.
The regulator found that both companies imposed a high quota on advertisers, forcing them to spend a significant part of their advertising budget on the broadcasters, limiting, as a result, the capacity of other TV channels from securing ad revenue.
The two groups were required to modify this commercial strategy within three months and were fined a total of 77.1 million euros.
The behaviors analyzed consist of the simultaneous imposition of several vertical restrictions by both Mediset and Atresmedia to the media agencies and advertisers, against the interests of the latests, which are limited in their choice wich is also causing restrictive effects on the competing channels.