DAZN and TIM face €8m fine over Serie A rights deal

The Italian Competition Authority (AGCM)  has imposed a fine of over €8million on sports streamer DAZN and telco provider TIM for the broadcasting rights of Serie A football league matches.

DAZN faces the worst of it with a €7,240,250.84 fine from the Italian authority, with TIM expected to pay €760,776.82.

It comes following an investigation the TIM’s Serie A agreement for the 2021-2022 season which provided exclusivity in favour of TIM and prohibited partnerships with its competitors in the telecommunications sector.

The Italian watchdog deemed the agreement could have harmful effects on the competitive market in the TLC sector, in the connectivity services markets, and the retail sale of pay-TV services.

TIM had also marketed a bundle offer that could not be replicated by its competitors, including the TimVision and DAZN contents and the connectivity service.

AGCM added the offer was likely to deprive TIM’s competitors of the possibility of associating particularly valuable content with their own connectivity services, such as the rights to watch Serie A matches A for the three-year period 2021-2024, limiting the ability to exercise competitive pressure against TIM itself.

In addition, the authority found clauses in the agreement made it likely to limit DAZN’s commercial options in relation to the development of audiovisual content offerings on other technological platforms.

Following the concurrent precautionary sub-proceeding, which occurred 2021 TIM and DAZN have since discontinued the contested clauses and the original agreement was then replaced by a new contract in 2022, which eliminated the exclusivity altogether.