97/606/EC: Commission Decision of 26 June 1997 pursuant to Article 90 (3) of the EC Treaty on the exclusive right to broadcast television advertising in Flanders (Only the French and Dutch texts are authentic) (Text with EEA relevance)

• Articles: 3

Article 1

The second paragraph of Article 80 and Article 41, point 1, of the Codex of Flemish rules on radio and television broadcasting, sponsoring and cable distribution, which provide that the Flemish Government may authorize only one private broadcaster to broadcast to the Flemish community as a whole and to broadcast commercial and non-commercial advertising to that Community, that broadcaster being the private television company Vlaamse Televisie Maatschappij NV, and the Decision of the Flemish executive of 19 November 1987 and the Royal Order of 3 December 1987, confirmed by a Decision of the Flemish executive of 11 December 1991, by which VTM was recognized as the sole private television company broadcasting to the Flemish community as a whole and was authorized to include commercial advertising in its programmes, are incompatible with Article 90 (1) of the EC Treaty, read in conjunction with Article 52 thereof.

Article 2

The Belgian authorities shall bring to an end the infringement referred to in Article 1, and shall inform the Commission within two months of notification of this Decision of the measures they have taken to comply therewith.

Article 3

This Decision is addressed to the Kingdom of Belgium.

Done at Brussels, 26 June 1997.

For the Commission

Karel VAN MIERT

Member of the Commission

(1) Belgisch Staatsblad/Moniteur belge, 30 May 1995.

(2) Belgisch Staatsblad/Moniteur belge, 19 March 1987.

(3) Belgisch Staatsblad/Moniteur belge, 14 August 1991.

(4) Belgisch Staatsblad/Moniteur belge, 4 June 1994.

(5) Report of the Flemish Parliamentary Committee on the Media No 152 of 28 November 1996, pp. 3 to 4, and minutes of the plenary session of the Council of the Flemish community of 17 December 1986, p. 325.

(6) Centrum von informatie over de media/Centre Information Médias, data for 1995 to 1996.

(7) Statistical yearbook. Cinema, television, video and the new media in Europe. Edition 1995, European Audiovisual Observatory (EAO), Strasbourg, 1995, pp. 279, 282.

(8) MediaMarkt 1996.

(9) EAO Statistical yearbook 1994, p. 267.

(10) ECR [1992] I-6757, at p. 6763.

(11) EAO Statistical yearbook 1995, p. 171.

(12) Ibid.

(13) This is apparent from the analysis of the geographical market for television advertising carried out by the Commission in its Decision in Case IV/M. 553 RTL/Veronica/Endmol (OJ L 134, 5. 6. 1996, p. 32).

(14) EAO Statistical yearbook 1995, p. 171.

(15) Case C-11/95 Commission v. Belgium [1996] ECR I-4115.

(16) OJ L 298, 17. 10. 1989, p. 23.

(17) Order of the Flemish Minister for Cultural Affairs and for Brussels of 16 January 1995.

(18) Not yet published.

(19) See Case C-320/91 Corbeau [1993] ECR I-2563.

(20) See Case C-55/94 Gebhard [1995] ECR I-4165.

(21) As was explained in paragraph 9, those conditions are the subject of the Reasoned Opinion of 15 May 1997.

(22) Decree of 29 April 1997 on the conversion of BRTN into a limited company established under public law: Belgisch Staatsblad/Moniteur belge, 1 May 1997.