Irish PR Association Wants Competition for Kantar

In the Republic of Ireland, PR industry body the PRII has asked competition regulators to intervene in Kantar Media's acquisition of family-owned Newsaccess, and compel the WPP firm to divest part of its Irish business.

The body has asked the country's Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (CCPC) to set conditions on the proposed takeover, announced at the start of February. The buy will give Kantar 'the bulk of the market' in the Republic, according to www.irishtimes.com . The CCPC is considering the matter despite the fact that Newsaccess' turnover is just below the EUR 3m threshold at which its involvement is legally required.

The PRII claims moves already taken by the two companies, despite the buy not being complete, have lowered the level of service with staff moved from Dublin to London and now less accessible. It has asked the CCPC 'to urgently introduce measures to ensure there is real, meaningful and significant competition' in the media monitoring market. CEO John Carroll says the announcement caused 'a lot of concern within the public relations profession' because 'media monitoring is a hugely important service to our sector, particularly monitoring of print and broadcast media'. Kantar said it is working with CCPC to address concerns, and has apologised for the service issues.

Dublin-based Newsaccess, whose CEO Stuart McHugh is pictured, employs around twenty people and had 2015 revenues of around EUR 2.3m.

Web sites: www.kantarmedia.com and www.newsaccess.ie .