Portuguese pay-television broadcaster Sport TV has had a fine reduced by the country’s competition tribunal following an appeal.
The original fine of €3.7m ($5m) – imposed by the Autoridade da Concorrência, the country’s competition regulator, nearly a year ago – has been reduced by €1m to €2.7m.
However, the tribunal upheld the regulator’s findings that Sport TV had adopted ‘discriminatory practices’ in imposing minimum carriage fee charges to pay-television operators between 2005 and 2011. The original complaint about Sport TV’s carriage fee model was submitted by the Cabovisão operator in 2009.
Sport TV said before its appeal that the fine was “disproportionate… manifestly unjust and unfounded.”