Poland’s Cyfrowy Polsat has been fined almost PLN35 million (€8.23 million) by the Office of Competition and Consumer Protection (UOKiK).
In a statement, the Office says that it decided to do so following the company’s actions during Euro 2016, when it dropped the German channels ZDF and Das Erste from its programme offer.
The two channels were at that time showing games from the tournament that Cyfrowy Polsat could watch if they subscribed to its basic offer.
Free coverage of some Euro 2016 games was provided in Poland by the public broadcaster TVP1’s first channel, as well as Polsat and Sport.tvp.pl.
However, others were shown on the encrypted services Polsat Sport 2 and Polsat Sport 3.
These cost PLN79 a month to receive, with other options being to pay PLN99 for IPLA 2016 or extend a contract with Cyfrowy Polsat for 24 months.
UOKiK concludes by saying its decision is not final and Cyfrowy Polsat has one month to appeal from its delivery.