Brussels, 19/07/2006 (Agence Europe) - On Wednesday the European Commission decided to send a letter of formal notice to Italy requesting information about its broadcasting legislation's compatibility with EU rules on competition in the markets for electronic communications networks and services. The Commission is concerned that Italian legislation adopted by the Berlusconi government: as it introduces unjustified restrictions to the provision of broadcasting transmission services and attributes unjustified advantages to existing analogue operators, notably the public television channel Rai and the Mediaset group of Mr Beslusconi (which they alone control more than 80% of listeners and 90% of television receipts in Italy). The Commission's decision to send a letter of formal notice follows a complaint from the Italian consumers' association Altroconsumo, claiming that the Italian legislation regulating the passage from analogue to digital terrestrial broadcasting technology infringes EU Directives 2002/21/EC (Framework Directive), 2002/20/EC (Authorisation Directive), 2002/77/EC (Competition Directive), as well as other provisions of EU law. On the basis of its analysis, the Commission is concerned that Italian legislation may indeed preclude operators which are not active in analogue transmissions from experimenting with digital transmissions and from creating their own digital networks. Moreover, the Italian legislation allows existing broadcasters to acquire more frequencies for digital experimentation than they need for simulcasting their programmes in analogue and digital. Finally, the law allows incumbents to maintain control over the frequencies and networks for analogue transmissions even after the switch-off, thus depriving their competitors of the digital dividend deriving from the enhanced capacity of digital networks. A letter of formal notice is the first step in the infringement procedure under Article 226 of the EC Treaty. Italy has now two months to respond.