69 / 214
69
FINANCIAL STATEMENTS AND MANAGEMENT REPORT 2015
Contingencies
Procedures relative to the late presentation of the Action Plan
On August 2, 2011, the Comisión Nacional de la Competencia current Comisión Nacional de los Mercados y la
Competencia (CNMC) handed down a resolution on dossier SNC/0012/11 (ConcentraciónTelecinco-Cuatro) in which
it declared Mediaset España Comunicación responsible for a very serious violation of Anti-Trust Law, as it did not
present an Action Plan (including commitments with the CNC) within the established deadline, setting a fine of 3,600
thousand euros.
This resolution was appealed before the National Court of Justice as part of ordinary civil lawsuit 474/2011. A sentence
handed down on January 8, 2013 overruled it, upholding the imposition of the fine.
Another appeal was filed before the Supreme Court, and admitted on September 21, 2015, with a ruling that the
appealed sentence was contested, ordering the return of the proceedings to the CNMC for it to hand down another
decision proportionate to the charged and justified infraction.
Thus, the accompanying balance sheet does not include a provision for this contingency, as the Company’s directors and
legal advisors do not consider it likely that this risk will materialize.
Proceedings related to Mediaset España Comunicación, S.A.’s supposed failure to comply
with the Telecinco-Cuatro merger commitments
On February 6, 2013, the Comisión Nacional de la Competencia current Comisión Nacional de los Mercados y la
Competencia (CNMC) handed down a ruling on Dossier SNC/0024/12 Mediaset (the “resolution”), in which Mediaset
España Comunicación, S.A. (“Mediaset España”) failed to comply with certain commitments and obligations established
in the C-0230/09 Telecinco/Cuatro merger dossier; a fine of 15,600 thousand euro was set.
The resolution states that Mediaset España failed to comply in 2011 and 2012 with four of the twelve commitments
upon which the Telecinco/Cuatro merger was authorized (commitments (ii), (iii), (vi) and (xii)), as well as different
requirements for providing information to the CNMC regarding these commitments.
In the view of the CNMC, the commitments set Mediaset España restrictions in order to neutralize or compensate for
potential anti-trust issues arising from the transaction.These include:
• Regarding the sale of TV ad space: Mediaset España agreed that it would not jointly place advertisements with
Cuatro and Telecinco or groups of channels whose overall audience topped 22%. Specifically, commitment (ii)
prohibited formal or de-facto joint sales of advertising space with Telecinco and Cuatro. Among other stipulations,
commitment (iii) established a functional split between Publimedia and Publiespaña, in order to handle free-to-air
and pay TV separately.
• Limits were imposed for the acquisition of audiovisual contents from third parties. In accordance with the
commitment (vi), exclusive contracts were limited to terms of three years (in general), with the prohibition of the
inclusion of automatic renewal or other similar systems.The commitment (xii) led to the prohibition of exclusive
or first option rights for the entirety of the production from national content providers.
The commitments were subsequently met unilaterally by the CNMC by an Action Plan imposed on the Company,
with an interpretation of the commitments which was strict to the point that it substantially modified its content,
affecting both advertising as well as content acquisition. For example, the “interpretation” considered that the duration
of contracts for acquiring content should be calculated commencing on their signing date, rather than when the rights
commenced.