Preliminary investigation into live matches of Eredivisie: consumers not harmed now

Update

September 12th, 2019: The District Court of Rotterdam has ruled on appeal in this case. For the complete text of that ruling (in Dutch), please refer to this page  and this page .

The Netherlands Authority for Consumers and Markets (ACM) has found insufficient evidence that consumers are harmed by the changes to the conditions that Fox imposed last year on the broadcasting rights for live matches of the Eredivisie, which is the top division of the Dutch football league. That is why ACM has ceased its preliminary investigation. Cable company CAIW had asked ACM whether Fox violated the Dutch Competition Act with its changes.

Changes to the conditions for live matches of the Eredivisie

Media and entertainment company Fox owns exclusive broadcasting rights for live matches of the Eredivisie. Fox commercially exploits the broadcasting rights via the joint venture Eredivisie Media and Marketing. Distributors such as CAIW, Ziggo, and KPN have no alternative to get live matches of the Eredivisie from another provider. Last year, Fox changed the conditions for the broadcasting rights for a large number of distributors. Only Ziggo, whose contract expires in 2020, still has the old conditions. Changes to the conditions could have negative effects on consumers, but ACM currently does not have sufficient evidence for this. A further investigation by ACM is thus not necessary at this point.

Many options and often lower prices

The prices of the different plans with Eredivisie matches are varied and have mostly gone down. The live matches of the Eredivisie are one of the channels that distributors can include in their TV plans. When choosing a distributor, consumers mostly pay attention to the price of the entire plan and the download speed.