The Competition and Market Guarantor Authority has imposed a 1 million euro fine to Sky Italia for "the dissemination of misleading information on the awarding of football rights for matches in the Serie A football championship".
Sky: the reasons for the fine
The sanction comes following an investigation during which Agcom ascertained that last year Sky Italia erroneously let its subscribers understand that it could keep watching the championship games of Serie A as happened in the previous season. Instead, things had changed. And a lot too. The rights to the Serie A championship had gone to Dazn - in tandem with Tim - and to satellite TV only 3 (out of 10) matches per day left.
According to the Authority, “following the conclusion of the tender for the assignment of the exclusive television rights to seven Serie A matches for each matchday, Sky Italia was aware that it could not offer the Sky Calcio package in the previous composition. Despite this, the company still gave its customers information they didn't understand the actual content of the offer relating to the Sky Calcio package for the 2021/2022 season, revealing the possibility that the offer could remain unchanged compared to the past”, declares Agcom.
All of this would have happened especially between 26 March 2021, the date on which Dazn was awarded packages 1 and 3, and 14 May, the day on which Sky was awarded package 2 co-exclusively with three games per day. But the conduct would also continue afterwards.
“Only with one campaign ended on 1st July 2021, the messages on the new configuration of the Football package, disseminated by Sky Italia in individual communications addressed to all subscribers, were found to be suitable for providing timely and effective information on the actual contents of the football offer", added the Authority, according to which by virtue of the misleading information provided by the company, the customer already subscribed to the company's services, and in particular to the Soccer package, would therefore have been oriented to keep the package existing, with a view to being able to take advantage of the promised discounts for the summer months but also, subsequently, to be able to withdraw without penalty.
Hence the decision to impose a fine of 1 million euros on Sky Italia.
