ERC condemns Prisa and Mario Ferreira for TVI purchase process

This dates back to February of this year, but has only just been made public: The decision by the Social Communications Regulatory Authority (ERC) to buy Media Capital (MC) in 2020 points to 42 violations of the Radio Act and three of the Television Act.

According to the regulator, the memorandum of understanding concluded by Mario Ferreira – today the main shareholder of the owner of TVI – with the Spaniards of Prisa should have been pre-approved; In addition, the ERC says that it was the Porto businessman who appointed Manuel Alves Monteiro as the administrator of MC, not Prisa, meaning he assumed a decisive role in the future of the media company in advance, which represented a change not authorized by the domain over the radio and television operators.

for what cm As it turns out, the parties were notified last week and Prisa, its Vertix and Pluris subsidiary owned by Mario Ferreira, were hit with three fines of 350,000 euros each. This is the largest fine ever imposed by the regulator.

However, half of the fine for each company (175,000 euros) is suspended for a period of two years, subject to the provision of a guarantee of 250,000 euros.

This means that, if there are no new convictions, each company can end up paying only 175,000 euros in this process.

But even in this case, and taking into account the number of violations of the law in question, the amount of fines could be much higher.

However, the ERC considered that “Given the depreciation of the conduct and its seriousness” and the fact that “the defendants showed no regret or understanding about the depreciation”, the amount in question is “adequate and sufficient”.