Germany

[DE] Federal Cartel Office Issues an Official Warning to Pay-TV Company

IRIS 1995-4:1/27

Volker Kreutzer

Institute of European Media Law (EMR), Saarbrücken/Brussels

The Federal Cartel Office (Bundeskartellamt) has issued an official warning to a company of the Bertelsmann AG group, to the French TV channel Canal Plus and to a company belonging to Kirch Gruppe. The three companies, which jointly run the German pay-TV channel "Première", had drawn up an agreement not to compete against one another on the Pay-TV markets beyond their activities in "Première". This agreement was contested by the Federal Cartel Office and the companies have been threatened with legal action. A reply statement by the companies is expected in the near future.