The Gasparri law violates EU rules. Now Mediaset wants to be part of the single network

Gasparri’s law “is contrary to EU lawThus, the Court of Justice of the European Union responded to the request of Lazio TAR regarding the Mediaset-Vivendi dispute that filled the pages of newspapers. An important turning point for two reasons: it reopens the game of escalation -at the moment defined as dangerous- of the French company as a shareholder of Biscione and it takes the latter to the party of the single network.

The Mediaset-Vivendi tirade

In 2017, Vivendi had to freeze its 10% stake in Mediaset, as it was also a shareholder in TIM, where it had a significant stake. The Gasparri law establishes a 10% limit for the participation of companies that produce and disseminate content, in order to protect the pluralism of information. Vivendi, which owned 28.8% of Mediaset’s share capital, sold a 19.9% ​​stake to Simon Fiduciaria to comply with Italian law, but using the Lazio TAR.

The idea of ​​an impact on the pluralism of information, however, contrasts with Article 49 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union. In particular, it represents “a restriction on freedom of establishment“.

“The companies that operate in the electronic communications sector, which exercise control over the transmission of content, do not necessarily exercise: according to the european court – a control over the production of said content“Here’s the crux: the shares, in the specific case, that Vivendi owned in Mediaset and still owns TIM, they were not at odds.

For the European court, Italian law establishes thresholds that “by not allowing to determine if a company can really influence the content of the media and to what extent, they do not have a link with the risk of media pluralism”.

Mediaset and single network: marriage possible if the Gasparri law is passed

Mediaset’s response was immediate. “These are findings that must be examined in the later stages of the sentence before the competent national judge and on which we trust that the Communications Authority can provide the appropriate clarifications.“the company said in a statement.

An amendment to the Gasparri law or a total supermaento of it would go in two directions and it is Mediaset itself that puts pen on paper what it could mean. “Yes, contrary to what the Italian law provides today, the possibility of convergence between the leaders of Tlc and the television edition, Mediaset, which in all these years has been bound and sanctioned by the ban opens will evaluate with the greatest interest each new opportunity in the field of TLC business from the recent developments of systems in the single national fiber network“.

In summary: Mediaset could be part of the single network, whose agreements were approved in recent days by the boards of TIM and Cassa Depositi e Prestiti.