Court says Dutch government must pay back 19m euro to commercial stations

A court in Rotterdam has ruled that the Dutch Ministry of Economic Affiars must pay back a total of 19 million euro to five commercial radio stations, which paid too much money for their FM licences awarded in June 2003.

The stations affected are Radio 538, RTL FM, Yorin, Q Music (formerly Noordzee FM) and BNR Nieuwsradio.

Martin Banga, Chairman of the Association for Commercial Radio Stations, says that the court's decision means that the Ministry will also have to pay back a further 11 million euro to another four stations: Sky Radio, Radio Veronica, Arrow Jazz FM and Slam! FM.

The Ministry has six weeks in which to lodge an appeal, and it's not yet clear whether it intends to do so. Banga says there are seven separate legal procedures taking place against the State at the moment connected with the way the frequencies were shared out in 2003.

The commercial stations paid a total of 300 million euros for their eight-year licences.

Source: Media Network

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