Commission: Swedish Platform Didn’t Receive Illegal Aid

BRUSSELS, December 22: The European Commission has ruled that
the Swedish state-owned terrestrial network operator Teracom did not receive
illegal subsidies in building its DTT platform.

The EC began investigating Teracom in 2004 after receiving
complaints that it had received financial support from pubcaster SVT in return
for transmission services, an alleged state-issued credit guarantee and a
capital injection. The Commission found these complaints to be unfounded,
noting that the transmission fee payments from SVT to Teracom did not exceed
market rates and, therefore, did not provide an undue advantage to Teracom. The
Commission has also found that a state credit guarantee was eventually not
issued and that no unconditional and legally binding promise had been made to
Teracom to that effect.

However, Sweden has been referred to the EU’s Court of
Justice over a related infringement case. In October, the Commission decided to
refer Sweden to the Court of Justice for its failure to change rules giving
Boxer TV-Access AB (a company jointly owned by Teracom and 3i) a monopoly to
provide access control services in Sweden’s digital terrestrial broadcasting
network.