The Competition Authority received a letter from Capacent ehf. (a media monitoring company) containing an account of a cooperation between Capacent and Ríkisútvarpið RUV (The Icelandic National Broadcasting Service), 365 miðlar ehf. and Skjárinn miðlar ehf. in setting up and operating an electronic radio and television monitoring system with a Portable People Meter (PPM) from Arbitron Inc. In its decision, the Competition Authority has concluded that the cooperation might distort competition, especially in the market for media monitoring, i.a. as the parties involved together are powerful buyers in the market for media monitoring. However, the Authority has decided to grant a temporary exemption, on the basis of Article 15 of the Competition Act, until 2nd April 2013, provided that certain conditions are met. These are set in order to ensure that new parties in the Icelandic broadcast media market are not excluded from future participation in the cooperation. Furthermore, a prerequisite for the exemption is that communication and the exchange of information between the parties concerned are subject to restrictions.
