Not out of the woods yet

Antitrust law The Competition Commission sees no reason to hurry with MediaSense, but is continuing its investigation. "Competition Commission Secretariat sees no need for precautionary measures against MediaSense." This was the title of a communiqué issued by TV marketer Publisuisse on October 30. In it, the SRG subsidiary triumphs over its competitors, the Publigroupe subsidiary Radiotele and the Goldbach subsidiary IP Multimedia, which had filed a complaint with the Competition Commission against the new marketing model of the Swiss Radio Pool (SRP). The model provides for marketing by MediaSense, a joint company of Publisuisse and SRP, whereby SRP advertising must be booked via Publisuisse's Publiplan online booking system. Publisuisse dominates the market and is abusing its position by offering low prices for the placement of radio advertising and requiring bookings to be made via Publiplan, the competitors complained. Radiotele also demanded precautionary measures, which were rejected by the Competition Commission, Publisuisse now writes, concluding: "MediaSense can therefore implement its business model as announced."
But that is only half the truth. Competition Commission spokesman Patrik Ducrey confirms that urgent measures have been dispensed with. "But the matter is not yet definitively closed," he says. It is possible that normal proceedings will be opened against Publisuisse if the Competition Commission Secretariat considers that the exclusive SRP marketing violates antitrust law. A decision will not be made until around the end of the year, says Ducrey.
Markus Knöpfli