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8:43 pm
The Romanian Competition Council FINES PRO TV RON 20.7 MILLION / Pro TV’s Response
The Romanian Competition Council has fined PRO TV SRL RON 20.7 million (approximately EUR 4.1 million) for failing to comply with commitments undertaken as part of an investigation.
In 2021, PRO TV committed to a series of measures aimed at addressing the competition concerns identified during the investigation into a possible abuse of a dominant position by the company. These commitments were mandatory for a period of three years.
The commitments involved adopting a new commercial offer for the acquisition of retransmission rights and reducing the gap between the discounts granted to Last-Tier Operators and those granted to other operators, compared with the previous commercial offer.
As part of the monitoring procedure for these commitments, the Romanian Competition Council analysed the contracts concluded by PRO TV with retransmission operators and found that the difference between the discount granted to Last-Tier Operators and the discounts granted to other operators had increased, compared with the gap established in the previous offer, by values ranging between 2.25% and 22.60%, depending on the year and the reporting tier.
Operators are companies active on the Romanian market for television programme retransmission services, acquiring retransmission rights for television channels through cable/DTH/IPTV networks.
Last-Tier Operators are operators that acquire retransmission rights for PRO TV channels based on PRO TV’s commercial offer adopted after 31 January 2021 and which, due to the number of subscribers to retail television services, fall within the highest volume tier of the discount structure included in this offer.
The decision of the Romanian Competition Council will be published on the institution’s website after the removal of confidential information.
Source: Romanian Competition Council
Pro TV on the Competition Council’s Sanction: “The Assessment Does Not Accurately Reflect the Facts and Is Incorrect. We Will Challenge the Decision”
We have taken note of the Competition Council’s announcement
We have taken note of the announcement published by the Competition Council on 29 July 2026 regarding procedures initiated more than 12 years ago.
We express our disagreement with the Competition Council’s conclusions. In our view, the Competition Council’s assessment does not accurately reflect the facts and is incorrect regarding both the existence of the alleged infringements and the interpretation of the commitments, including the method of calculation.
Throughout the period of implementation of the commitments, we acted in good faith, and our commercial practices fully complied with all applicable legal requirements. We remain confident in the integrity of our business model and in the legality and fairness of our conduct.
Furthermore, we believe that any assessment of competitive conditions should take into account the broader market context, particularly the consolidation of market power by major telecom operators that distribute television channels in Romania, including a distribution structure that controls more than 75% of the market and significantly influences competitive conditions across the entire industry.
For these reasons, we will exercise our legal rights and challenge the Competition Council’s decision before the competent court, where we believe our position will be assessed fairly and objectively.
Source: PRO TV
PHOTO: PRO TV
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