Expansion Of Joint Ventures And Merger Control

Introduction

The Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (the "CCPC") announced in July that it had opened an inquiry in the GAAGO Media online streaming service (a full-function joint venture between RTÉ Commercial Enterprises DAC and the Gaelic Athletic Association) ("GAAGO"). An interesting feature of this case is the fact that the CCPC had previously approved the GAAGO joint venture, which at the time was set up to provide a streaming service to customers outside of Ireland. The expansion of that service to the domestic market earlier this year followed by confirmation from RTÉ before the Joint Committee on Tourism, Culture, Arts, Sport and Media that the service was currently operating without clearance from the CCPC raised the question as to whether that expansion triggered a new merger notification requirement to the CCPC. While the inquiry is ongoing, it does provide an opportunity to look at the circumstances in which the expansion of an existing