The Slovenian Administrative Court annuls the Competition Authority’s merger prohibition decision and divestment order in sports programming industry (Sport Klub)

On 4 September 2018 the Slovenian Competition Protection Agency (“CPA”) issued a merger control decision by which the CPA prohibited the acquisition of a broadcaster of several sport TV channels by United Group B.V. The CPA also ordered a divestment of sport TV channels. [1] United Group B.V. initiated an administrative dispute against the decision. The Administrative Court of the Republic of Slovenia (the “Administrative Court”) decided on the dispute in favour of United Group B.V. and by its judgement Ref No. 1868/2018 as of 21 May 2020 (the “Judgement”) annulled both the prohibition decision and the divestment order and reversed the matter back to the CPA. On 21 October 2021, the CPA issued a new merger control decision by which it ultimately cleared the concentration without any