The Italian Competition Authority opens an antitrust investigation against a collecting society

The Italian Competition Authority (ICA) has recently opened an Article 102 TFEU investigation against Nuovo Imaie (NI), a collecting society of related rights (Case A489). NI, successor to the former legal monopolist, dominated the markets for the management of related rights on musical and audiovisual works. On the basis of the facts and evidence produced by two competitors of NI that lodged a complaint, the ICA took the view that NI might have abused its dominant position in three ways. First, by discriminating the authors, who were not its members, making the payment of royalties conditional upon their joining NI. Second, without any objective justification, NI  refused competitors access to its database of works and authors, which was essential input for collecting societies to be able to provide their services. Third, NI signed a number of exclusive agreements with foreign collecting societies for mutual assistance in the collection of royalties. NI competitors were unable to conclude similar agreements.

The ICA believed that those conducts were part of a strategy of NI to foreclose competitors that recently entered into the newly liberalized market for the management of related rights.

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