Europe set to investigate Liberty Media's MotoGP acquisition

Announced on April 1, the acquisition of Dorna by Liberty Media was to be completed by the end of this year 2024. According to the media specialized in finance Bloomberg, a thorough investigation is expected to be launched by the European Commission by December 19, which could delay the completion of the acquisition or even jeopardize it, depending on the findings of the investigation. Liberty Media was confident about the acquisition, but on December 1, the Spanish Teresa Ribera became the Competition Commissioner, appointed by Ursula von der Leyen, the current President of the European Commission.

Ribera and his team would therefore like to take a closer look at the acquisition, which would allow Liberty Media to own the two most important motorsport competitions on the planet, following its acquisition of the Formula 1 in 2017. Still according to Bloomberg, the concerns would mainly concern the market for television and streaming rights, as Liberty Media's monopoly on both competitions could reduce competition in this market. In France (Canal+) and Belgium (RTBF), for example, the same broadcasters hold the broadcasting rights for both championships, and it would be possible to imagine that Liberty Media would potentially want to systematize this scheme.

A spokesperson for Liberty Media said the company continues to "work constructively" with EU regulators as part of the review and hoped they would “would understand the dynamic nature of the market”. In-depth investigations generally add three months to the time limit for individual acquisitions, but it can take even longer if the EU considers that it needs to investigate one or more issues in more detail. At the end of the investigation, the Commission can decide to unconditionally accept the sale, to request that certain shortcomings be remedied or simply to prohibit the acquisition outright.

For Liberty Media, this could turn into the same scenario that had brought into question CVC, the company from which Liberty Media bought Formula 1. At the end of 2005, the Competition Commission had asked it to sell its shares in the MotoGP in order to proceed with the acquisition of Formula 1, which was done at the beginning of 2006. It remains to be seen whether or not this precedent will influence the results of the investigation carried out at the end of this year.

ALSO READ > Liberty Media draws the outlines of its management of MotoGP