The European Union's highest institution will open an 'in-depth investigation' to determine whether the purchase of MotoGP by Formula 1 owner Liberty Media violates its antitrust framework. The European Commission, one of the EU's decision-making bodies with executive power, is determined to closely analyse Liberty's acquisition of Dorna, which holds the rights to the MotoGP World Championship.
The wording of the purchase, announced in May, stipulates that the American media company would acquire an 86% stake in Dorna that would value the Spanish firm at 4.2 billion euros. However, the transaction, which was initially due to take place before the end of 2024, will not be completed within the expected timescale due to the intervention of the European Commission. Following an initial report by Bloomberg last week, the competition regulator announced on Thursday that it is opening an 'in-depth investigation' to clarify whether the deal violates the antitrust framework established by the office headed by Teresa Ribera, who serves as vice president of both the Commission and the Spanish government. The suspicion revolves around the possibility that MotoGP's acquisition could place Liberty, which already owns F1, in a dominant position in the market for granting race broadcasting rights in Europe - and that would ultimately lead to an increase in consumer prices. 'The transaction raises serious competition concerns in potential narrow national markets for the licensing of broadcasting rights for motorsports content in the European Economic Area, where Formula One is the clear market leader in all European countries and MotoGP is most often its only competitor,' argued the commission in first of the two points on which it based its decision not to approve the purchase immediately