Politician calls for investigation into Liberty Media over monopoly fear

F1 owners still waiting for EU competitions b♍oard clearance on MotoGP buyout

MotoGP
MotoGP

A Belgian MEP has asked the European Commission to investigate Liberty Mediওa amid fears of it holding a monopoly in world motorsport as Formula 1 and MotoGP owner.

In April of this year, Liberty announced that it ha🧔d purchased an 86% majority of Dorna Sports and MotoGP in a deal wo🥃rth $4.2 billion.

Liberty still hopes to finalise the sale by the end of the year once the deal has gone through the EU’s antitrus🐓t board, with the American company confident it will do so.

Belgia💦n MEP Pascal Arimont, who represents the Christian Social Party in the European Parliament, has written to the EU to investigate whether or not Liberty could create a monopoly once its acquisition of MotoGP is complete.

Liberty took over ownership of F1 from CVC Capital in 2017, while siജster company Liberty Global owns the Formula E World Championship.

ജFormula 2 and Formula 3 also falls under Liberty ownership, while its acquisition of Dorna Sports means it 👍will also control all of the properties the Spanish company oversees - with World Superbikes being the most notable.

Arimont, as reported by , says “there must be fair competition to protect consumeᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ𒀱ᩚᩚᩚr🦋s”, and questions whether this is the case with Liberty.

When CVC was given the green light to purchase F1, it w🐲as ordered by the EU’s competition board to sell its interests in MotoGP.

MotoGP was♏ sold to Bridgepoint as a result of this💮.

However, in an investors call earlier this year, Liberty CEO Greg Maffei was keen to point out that CVC was only unable to own both F1 and MotoGP due to the limited 🥃timeframe it had to purchase the four-wheel series stopping it from going through the regulators.

“I remember speaking to the CVC management, they were under a tight timeframe to😼 get a deal done to buy F1,” he said in April.

“So, they did not h🌃ave the time to go and🍒 work through the regulatory process.

“And they were a PE [private equity] firm which had a big gain in one pro🦩duct and were moving to buy the other when they had a contract to execute on. We are in a very different position.”

Liberty has also faced scrutiny from the US Department of Jusꦐtice in the form of an antitrust investigation after F1 refused entry onto the grid for Andretti Global.

Belgian MEP Arimo🌠nt mentioned this as part of his claim, stating: “Commercial agreements make it very difficult for new teams to enter F1, possibly restri𓄧cting competition in an illegal way.”

Arimont’s demands for another European Parliamentary investigation into Liberty Media will be responded to in a maximum of six weeks by 🎶the European Commissioner for Competition, Margrethe Vestager.

She w♌ill be succeeded by Spaniard Teres Ribera in ♑December. 

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