Do draft EU competition regs make BBC Trust obsolete?

November 5, 2008

Comply­ing with the new EU Draft Com­mu­nic­a­tion from the Com­mis­sion on the applic­a­tion of State aid rules to pub­lic ser­vice broad­cast­ing [pdf] will pretty much obvi­ate BBC Trust con­trol over the market-based activ­ity of the BBC:

Mem­ber States shall have appro­pri­ate mech­an­isms in place to pre­vent dis­pro­por­tion­ate mar­ket dis­tor­tions and to con­trol the mar­ket beha­viour of pub­lic ser­vice broad­casters. Without pre­ju­dice to the enforce­ment of com­pet­i­tion rules, such mech­an­isms should enable the con­trol of even­tual anti-competitive prac­tices of pub­lic ser­vice broad­casters which are dir­ectly linked with the pub­lic fund­ing they receive.

Third parties shall have the right to sub­mit com­plaints con­cern­ing such alleged anti-competitive beha­viour to an external body inde­pend­ent from the pub­lic ser­vice broad­caster. The super­vis­ory body shall have the neces­sary powers to impose appro­pri­ate rem­ed­ies and pro­por­tion­ate sanc­tions in case anti-competitive beha­viour is demonstrated.

{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }

1 Richard S November 6, 2008 at 00:15

I think that is proposing the Trust model actually – with PVTs…

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2 Adrian Monck November 6, 2008 at 00:18

Our learned friends might argue that the Trust doesn’t really tick the “external body independent from the PSB” box the same way Ofcom does though…

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3 Adrian Monck November 6, 2008 at 15:33

Now we learn that Stephen Carter thinks it should be the Competition Commission and not the “sectoral regulator.”

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