Italy: CTS Eventim – Ticketone abuse of dominance in Italy: the show must go on!
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On 24 October 2022, the Italian Supreme Administrative Court (“Consiglio di Stato” or “CdS”) affirmed the Tar Lazio judgment, which annulled the Italian Competition Authority (“ICA”) decision to impose a fine of 10.9 million euros on CTS Eventim – Ticketone for abuse of a dominant position in the market for live event ticket sales in Italy.
According to the ICA, the CTS Eventim – Ticket0ne group deployed a unitary and complex strategy, which included:
- exclusive agreements concluded by the Eventim – Ticketone group with the main national event promoters;
- imposition of exclusivity clauses on local event promoters;
- agreements entered into by the Eventim - Ticketone group with smaller local ticketing operators requiring them to sell tickets exclusively through Ticket One's automated ticketing system;
- boycotting of competitors (e.g., against ZED Entertainment World S.r.l. (“ZED”), following its refusal to enter into an exclusive agreement with Ticketone), with the aim of preventing promoters from turning to competing ticketing operators;
- the…
