NEWS15 April 2011

Marktest files competition complaint over Portuguese TAM tender

Europe Legal

PORTUGAL— Marktest has filed a complaint with the Portuguese competition authority over the decision by the country’s TV joint industry committee to hire GfK to run the national TV audience measurement panel.

Marktest chairman Luís Queriós complains that the technology to be used by GfK in the new panel – the Universal Meter System, designed to measure digital, broadcast, linear, on-demand, mobile and internet TV viewing – has “yet to be tested in any other country”.

“We do not understand why CAEM [the joint industry committee] is willing to allow Portugal to be used as a test market,” Queriós said.

The company also objects to the price GfK pitched to win the contract – €1.9m a year, Marktest claims, which was some 30% lower than its own bid and that of other companies.

In a statement, Queriós said: “We will not sit ideally as below-the-belt punches are thrown in this marketplace.”

GfK was unavailable for comment at the time of publication. Marktest is hoping to suspend the tender decision, which was announced last month.

@RESEARCH LIVE

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