SIS TELLS JOWELL OF EU COMPETITION COMPLAINT.
URGES HER NOT TO COMPOUND EXISTING PROBLEMS IN SETTING THE NEXT LEVY SCHEME.

18 January 2002 - The Culture, Media and Sport Secretary was today encouraged by SIS to take into account its complaint to the European Union competition authorities when deciding on the Levy.

Tessa Jowell, Secretary of State for the Department of Culture, Media and Sport, is currently consulting on the 2002/2003 Levy. The letter from David Holdgate, Chief Executive of SIS, informs her of the formal complaint made by SIS to the Competition Directorate General of the EU and invites her to take the issues raised in the complaint into account when determining the Levy alongside a commercial arrangement.

The complaint claims that the Levy Board gave illegal state aid when it sold Racecourse Technical Services Ltd (RTS) below its true value to the BHB and the RCA. The complaint also alleges that the grants and preferential loans given to RTS also amount to state aid, illegal under Article 87 of the EC Treaty. The complaint is under active consideration by the European Commission.

David Holdgate said “ "Since the legality of certain Levy payments is in issue, we believe that as a matter of public interest the Secretary of State should satisfy herself that any problems in that regard are not compounded by being carried over into the next Levy."

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