Italy PM Cleared of Conflict of Interest
On May 11, Italy’s antitrust authority ruled that Prime Minister Berlusconi did not violate conflict of interest rules when his government approved subsidies to Italians who purchase digital television decoders. While critics of the subsidies claimed that they favored Mediaset SPA, Berlusconi’s own television broadcasting empire, the antitrust authority found that the €10 million ($12.7 million) went to two of Italy’s 20 regions and were to pay for only certain types of decoders, meaning that the overall financial impact on the market was minimal. The European Commission is also investigating the matter due to concerns that the grants distort fair business competition because they are available only for traditional broadcast television and not satellite broadcasts.
