EC report says favourable treatment of operator not in line with acquis

Media associations said, after several acquisitions of cable operators and TV channels, the moves jeopardised media freedom since new owners and editorial board were considered close to the authorities.

The report says that „generally, a preferential treatment favourable to the incumbent operator on the market is not contributing to the achievement of competition policy objectives and to the alignment with the acquis.”

It added that „the Commission for Protection of Competition (CPC) decisions have been increasingly upheld by appeal courts; however, the capacity of the judiciary to handle complex competition cases needs to be strengthened significantly by increasing the number of judges with expertise in this field.”