Liberty’s MotoGP purchase delayed as EU launches intense investigation

The EU’s highest body will launch an “in-depth investigation” to determine whether the purchase of MotoGP by Formula 1 owner Liberty Media violates its antitrust framework.

The European Commission, one of the EU’s decision-making bodies with executive power, is determined to closely analyze Liberty’s acquisition of Dorna, which holds the rights to the MotoGP World Championship.

The terms of the purchase announced in May say the US media company will acquire an 86% stake in Dorna, valuing the Spanish firm at 4.2 billion euros.

However, the transaction, which was initially scheduled to take place before the end of 2024, will not be completed within the expected timeframe due to intervention by the European Commission.

Following Bloomberg’s initial report last week, the competition regulator announced on Thursday it was launching an “intense investigation” to clarify whether the deal violates the antitrust framework established by the office led by Teresa Ribera, Who is working as Vice President. Both the Commission and the Spanish Government.

Doubts revolve around the possibility that the acquisition of MotoGP could put Liberty, which already owns F1, into a dominant position in the market for race broadcasting rights in Europe – and this could ultimately lead to higher consumer prices. Will happen.

argued, “This transaction gives rise to serious competition concerns in the potentially narrow national markets for licensing broadcast rights of motorsports content in the European Economic Area, where Formula One is the clear market leader in all European countries and MotoGP is often Its only competitor.” The Commission based its decision on the first two points on which it did not immediately approve the purchase.

“The transaction could remove significant competitive barriers between the parties on certain potentially broad national markets for the licensing of broadcast rights to all sports content or potential segments of such markets. In particular, this is because it appears that the formula Forest and MotoGP compete closely,” it added.

At the same time, the Commission will also investigate the influence of John Malone, the main shareholder of both Liberty Media and Liberty Global, and whether he could drive out rival broadcasters in countries where Liberty operates, such as Belgium, Ireland and Netherlands.

The investigation is now entering the second phase which could last up to 90 working days from the date of contract submission – November 14 – before a decision is made on whether to go in one direction or the other. Therefore the new deadline has been extended till May 14.

The agreement between Liberty and Dorna states that if Liberty withdraws its offer it will have to pay the MotoGP promoter a sum of 126 million euros.