Saudi Arabia fines beIN Sports for violating competition laws

Abu Dhabi: The Saudi General Authority for Competition has fined six companies for violating competition laws with a total amount of 41.5 million riyals, while obliging them to get decisions published at their expense, between July 14 and December 21, local media reported.

The decisions of the committee for reviewing violations of the Competition Law, backed by the Administrative Court in its two levels of First Instance and Appeal, included the imposition of a fine of 10 million riyals against beIN Sports and revoking its license.

BeIN Sports was also ordered to return all the gains achieved because of abusing its dominant position by forcing customers to subscribe to a package that included non-sports channels as a condition for subscribing to sports channel packages. It also required subscribers to renew packages for additional periods as a condition for participation in other sports tournaments.

In October, two companies operating in bottling and selling soft drinks were fined 10 million riyals each for failing to inform the Competition Authority and obtain its approval before completing the acquisition, in addition to agreeing and coordinating the geographical division of the concluded contract between the two facilities.

Information technology

In September, the authority fined a company providing information technology services one million riyals for withholding information and not allowing law enforcement officers to view all records, files and documents and preventing them from carrying out their duties.

A 500,000 riyal fine was also issued against a company that imports and sells food.

The Saudi Telecom Company was fined 10 millionriyals on December 21 for abusing its dominant position by imposing special conditions on sales or purchases, when dealing with another facility in a manner that places it in a weak competitive position.