The President of the Polish competition authority (UOKiK) has officially closed an investigation concerning the discounts applied by media brokers in the television advertising sector. The analysis conducted by the authority did not reveal any practices that would limit competition among these brokers.

The investigation focused on progressive volume discounts, also known as Agency Volume Bonuses (AVB) or kick-backs, which are payments made to media houses or advertisers by entities offering media space. These discounts serve as incentives for achieving sales targets or fulfilling contractual conditions within a specified period.

UOKiK examined whether these progressive volume discounts distort the decision-making of media houses regarding their advertising budgets, potentially leading to a concentration of orders or expenditures with specific brokers. However, the analysis found no such tendencies, indicating that media houses choose brokers based on the suitability of media for their campaign needs and target audience. It was also determined that there are no significant barriers in the market preventing broadcasters from changing brokers.

The aim of the investigation was to verify whether the discounts used by these entities could contribute to the closure of the brokerage services market for television advertising. UOKiK President Tomasz Chróstny stated that kick-backs are currently a standard practice among market participants that does not restrict competition among businesses. Although the investigation into television advertising has concluded, the authority does not rule out future analyses of discount systems used in other segments of the advertising market, including digital, print, or radio advertising.