Rédaction Africa Links 24 with Daily Nation
Published on 2024-01-25 16:40:21
The Confederation of African Football (CAF) and Qatari sports channel beIN have each been fined $300,000 (about Sh53,457,142) by the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (Comesa) for violating competition regulations in the region.
The Commission’s Committee Responsible for Initial Determinations (CID) found that certain provisions of the beIN Agreements violated Article 16 of its Competition Regulations. In particular, the lack of an open tender process for the award of the pay-TV broadcast rights for CAF competitions was deemed to have resulted in a significant prevention, restriction, or distortion of competition within the Common Market.
The Commission stated that the duration of the exclusive beIN Agreements for CAF competitions was disproportionately long, increasing the likelihood of market foreclosure. As a result, the Commission ordered that all media rights awarded to beIN, with regard to its operationalization within the Common Market, shall cease on December 31 of the current year.
Furthermore, CAF was found to have given Lagardere Sports exclusive rights to commercialize their media and marketing rights from 2008 to 2016, with the agreement being extended in 2015 to 2028. The Commission has instructed CAF to award all future exclusive media rights of their competitions within the Common Market through an open, transparent, and non-discriminatory tender process based on objective criteria.
Additionally, the Commission has required CAF not to enter into new exclusive media rights agreements within the Common Market for a duration longer than four years.
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