The IPM media group (newspapers Free et The DHbut also LN24 television…) has lodged an appeal with the Dutch-speaking Court of Appeal in Brussels to cancel the green light given by the Belgian Competition Authority (ABC) to the takeover of RTL Belgium by the Rossel and DPG groups , confirmed Thursday its CEO, François Le Hodey.
“To my knowledge, Ads&Data (the agency of Telenet and Mediahuis, Editor’s note) has also lodged an appeal”, added Mr. Le Hodey. The latter had already expressed last week, before the Parliament of the Wallonia-Brussels Federation, the group’s reflection on the advisability of lodging an appeal. He castigated a competition council which “was very lazy”estimating that “important points […] have absolutely not been analyzed as they should be. A consolidation of this level must be supervised and this work has not been done with rigor and depth”.
According to the complaint, the investigative duties would not have been carried out and, therefore, ABC’s market analysis is “affected by certain breaches of the requirements of the law”.
For François le Hodey, the consolidation of RTL Belgium within DPG Media and Rossel has the consequence of “bring together and strengthen their dominant market positions under an integrated strategic umbrella”. The objective is therefore to compel the ABC to “adopt a framework ensuring that it does not negatively affect competition” both at the level and that of content purchases or broadcasting rights. IPM and Ads&Data therefore fear that this new player will abuse its dominant position in the sector.
“Naïve”
Last week, in the columns of The futurethe director of the RMB agency, Yves Gérard, had described as “naïve” the attitude of the ABC. “To believe that the market will not be disrupted is to completely misunderstand how this market works in Belgium”, he added, specifying that this market, previously segmented between North and South, was now becoming national. However, the RMB did not join the complaint.
Rossel and DPG spent 250 million euros last year to buy RTL Belgium from its parent company, RTL Group.
