Vodafone has called on the Comisión Nacional de los Mercados y La Competencia (CNMC), Spain’s competition regulator, to intervene in its battle with rival telco Telefónica to screen the Formula One motor racing championship and MotoGP motorcycling series, adding it is considering legal action should the dispute not be resolved.
Vodafone’s director of legal and regulatory affairs, Pedro Pena, has claimed a complaint submitted to CNMC over the matter in February has gone unanswered.
Vodafone has claimed the current situation contravenes a condition imposed by the CNMC when the regulator gave the green light to Telefónica’s takeover of Spanish pay-television operator Canal Plus in April 2015. The condition said Telefónica must share 50 per cent of its premium content, such as movies and sports coverage, with its rivals.
Pena has claimed Vodafone requested access to Formula One and MotoGP coverage in January, but was notified that it would have to wait until July when Telefónica reviews its wholesale tariffs. This would mean Vodafone would miss out on coverage of a significant portion of the 2016 F1 and MotoGP seasons, which commenced at the weekend.
Vodafone is calling for a quick response from the CNMC to its complaint dated February 23. “We have asked for intervention,” Pena said, according to Spanish newspaper El Mundo. “We have not had a response and we have no possibility to act, it is like fighting a ghost.”