Vivendi has one year to remove the prohibited position after Mediaset's complaint on the French takeover of Alfa and their de facto control of Telecom. This was decided by Agcom ascertaining the dominant influence of Vivendi in Telecom (where it has 23,9%) with the French having 29,9% of the voting rights in the Biscione against 39,7% so far of Fininvest. It is Agcom's first decision on this part of the 'Gasparri law', in particular on the control ceilings in the media and telecommunications sector.
On 15 December, Agcom had signaled that the legislation in force could have prevented the operations aimed at concentrating the control of Telecom Italia, where Vivendi is the first shareholder with about 24%, and Mediaset, in which the French group it is present at 28% with 29,9% of the voting rights.
The Authority drew attention to the fact that Tusmar establishes a ban on exceeding the control thresholds. In particular, Agcom recalled that electronic communications companies which hold a share of more than 40% in the Italian market cannot acquire revenues exceeding 10% of the Integrated Communications System, Sic (TV, radio, publishing).
