Communication
The aim of the protection of market competition is primarily to create benefits for consumers and equal conditions for all entrepreneurs on the market, who, acting in accordance with the existing rules and competing on the market with the quality, price and innovation of their products and services, contribute to the overall development of the economy.
Clearance for Media Merger between AMG and AMZ
The Croatian Competition Agency cleared the proposed implementation of a concentration on the basis of which Adria Media Group (AMG) from Belgrade acquires control over the undertaking Adria Media Zagreb (AMZ).
Adria Media Group had been until 2013 active in the Republic of Serbia under the name of Adria Media Serbia under control of the undertakings Adria Media Holding GmbH and Styria Media International GmbH. After these two left the market in 2013 their share capital in Adria Media Serbia was acquired by the undertaking Kurir-Info, whereas later Aleksandar Rodić acquired the share capital concerned. In July 2014 Adria Media Serbia changed its name into Adria Media Group. AMG in Serbia publishes a newspaper, 14 magazines and 12 online publications.
Adria Media Zagreb was founded as a joint venture between the undertakings Sanoma Magazines International B.V. from the Netherlands and the Austrian G+J International Publishing Holding GmbH and Styria Media International AG. The implementation of this concentration resulted in the establishment of a company Adria Magazines, now Adria Media Zagreb, who is in Croatia a publisher of 14 magazines and 7 online publications.
The concentration between AMG and AMZ will have effects on the relevant press publishing market, in the segments of the circulation sold (magazines) and press advertising (magazines) as well as the circulation and advertising in online publications (web portals).
Based on the complete notification of the concentration concerned and the defined structure of the relevant market taking into account the actual and potential competitors, the CCA concluded that no party to the concentration is active in the same relevant geographic market, there is no horizontal overlap and there are no vertical links between the merging companies.
Adria Media Group is entering the relevant market by acquiring the market share of AMZ (the situation known as stepping into the shoes of the merged entity) that leads to no change in the structure of the relevant market.
Namely, in the market segment of press publishing and advertising in magazines, Adria Media Zagreb is the second of the two leading competing undertakings in Croatia, whereas in the online publishing and advertising market, AMZ has no significant market share given the fact that there are a lot of competitors present in these markets.
There were no replies to the request for information made public by the CCA.
Consequently, taking into account the structure of the market and the market power and the market shares of the parties to the concentration in the relevant markets concerned, the CCA found that this concentration is not likely to have any anticompetitive effects and cleared it in the first phase.