Telecom companies withdraw their complaint about broadcasting rights for Eredivisie football matches following ACM’s interim opinion

A consortium of four Dutch telecom companies, consisting of Delta Fiber, KPN, Odido, and VodafoneZiggo, has withdrawn its complaint filed with the Netherlands Authority for Consumers and Markets (ACM) about obtaining the broadcasting rights for football matches of the Eredivisie, which is the top division of the Dutch football league. The consortium withdrew its complaint after ACM had shared its interim opinion with the consortium: at this time, ACM sees no reason to qualify the agreement between Eredivisie CV (ECV) and media company EMM (Disney) as at odds with the competition rules. Since the consortium has withdrawn its complaint, ACM did not issue a final decision.

The consortium had asked ACM to take action against ECV’s decision to grant a license for the broadcasting rights of Eredivisie matches to Disney. Disney has this license until mid-2025, and broadcasts the Eredivisie matches on its channel ESPN. However, the consortium had indicated that it was also interested in the license. According to the consortium, the broadcasting rights should have been been put up for offer through a public tender process, not through renegotiations. According to the consortium, the agreement between ECV and Disney was in violation of the competition rules.

On 5 October 2023, the consortium filed a request for enforcement with ACM. The telecom companies drew various media outlets’ attention to their request for enforcement. Following this request, ACM carried out an investigation into the renegotiation process for the broadcasting rights. ACM has shared its interim opinion with the consortium: at this time, ACM sees no reason to qualify the agreement between ECV and Disney as at odds with the competition rules. Following this interim opinion, the consortium decided to withdraw its request for enforcement. ACM did not issue a final decision as a result of this withdrawal.