Keywords
State Aid, Public Service Broadcasters, European Union, internal market
Abstract
This article explores the legal regime governing Public Service Broadcasters (PSBs), and the competences of the EU in regulating and overseeing them, from the perspective of State aid law and their compatibility with the internal market. First, the components of the legal framework are identified and analysed. Additionally, a substantive public value test is proposed and introduced, building on the available literature, decisional practice, and incorporating a legal construction of pluralism, derived from the available case law. Subsequently, the compatibility regime for PSBs is examined. The specific regime applicable to PSBs, and its constituent elements, are analysed, followed by an analysis of the general principles of State aid compatibility, with a focus on legality and incentive effect. Finally, the various threads of the analysis are brought together, demonstrating how the combined framework would apply, and how, subject to limitations, the apparent competence gap could be bridged.
Acknowledgements
Funding
This article received no funding
The cost of editing selected articles published in the Yearbook of Antitrust and Regulatory Studies in the 2022–2024 is covered by funding under the program “Development of scientific journals” of the Ministry of Education and Science under agreement No. RCN/SN/0324/2021/1. Task title: “Verification and correction of scientific articles and their abstracts”. Funding value: 36 298,00 PLN; The task consists of professional editing of articles published in English.
Declaration of Conflict of interests
The author declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and publication of this article.
Declaration about the scope of AI utilisation
The author did not use AI tools in the preparation of this article.
Recommended Citation
Pelekis, D., & Kozak, M. (2024). Public Value and the Compatibility of State Aid to Public Service Broadcasters – the hot potato for the European Commission. Yearbook of Antitrust and Regulatory Studies, 17(30), 101-126. https://doi.org/10.7172/1689-9024.YARS.2024.17.30.4
First Page
101
Last Page
126
Page Count
26
Received Date
06.02.2024
Accepted Date
05.08.2024
DOI
10.7172/1689-9024.YARS.2024.17.30.4
JEL Code
K21, L4, L44
Publisher
University of Warsaw
