The Competition Council Has Initiated a Preliminary Examination of the Complaint Filed by Four Televisions on Alleged Cartel Agreement on the Advertising Market

On February, 2, the representatives of the Competition Council (CC) met the representatives of the television stations PRO TV Chisinau, RTR-Moldova, Jurnal TV, and TV 8, which had notified the agency of their concern about an alleged cartel agreement between the advertising companies Casa Media and Exclusive Sales House.

Cristina Zara, deputy chairman for policy and public relations of the CC, told Media-azi.md that “the purpose of this meeting was to collect information in addition to the one submitted by the applicants in order to determine whether an investigation needs to be initiated.”
According to the Law on Competition, the procedure set for examination of violations of competition rules includes preliminary examination and/or investigation, the above-mentioned source said. “This complaint is now undergoing preliminary examination, which is to be conducted within 30 working days from the date of filing,” Cristina Zara added.

Contacted by Media-azi.md, Mariana Rata, a representative of TV 8, one of the signatories of the complaint, said that the CC initially intended to meet separately with representatives of each of the four stations, invoking trade secret. However, the latter insisted on participation of all the signatories of the complaint in the meeting, pointing to their right to decide what exactly trade secret was for the outlets they represent.

We shall remind that on January 19, four TV channels filed a joint complaint to the Competition Council, accusing two advertisers – Casa Media and Exclusive Sales House – of cartel agreement and abuse of their dominant position on the market. Representatives of both advertisers deny the existence of any cartel arrangements between them.