Nova S has filed a lawsuit against the Serbian Regulatory Authority for Electronic Media (REM) for its failure to pass a decision on the issuance of the fifth national broadcasting license within the legal deadline.
The lawsuit states that Nova S, as an applicant in the competition for the issuance of a national broadcasting license, addressed the REM with a request that it be awarded the license, filed the competition application and submitted the requested documentation, in line with the relevant provisions on the Law on Electronic Media.
The lawsuit further reads that the decision to call a public tender for the license was made on July 29, 2022. The text of the public competition was posted on the REM website on August 9, 2022 and published in the Official Gazette in August 12, 2022.
Under Article 5 of the Public Competition decision, the REM was to pass its decision on the award of the license within 30 days from the publishing of the list of all applicants whose applications are complete and submitted in a timely manner.
Nova S said that it submitted its application on October 10, 2022, that is, by the deadline. The list of applicants, including Nova S, who submitted complete bids in a timely manner was adopted on October 31, 2022 and published in the Official Gazette on November 4, 2022. It was REM’s obligation to award the license within 30 days but it failed to do so.
Following the expiry of the aforementioned deadline, Nova S sent a request to the REM, via email, on December 7, 2022, asking it to pass its decision on the award of the license, and adding that the same request would also be delivered to it via regular mail. The lawsuit reads that Nova S has submitted proof that the REM received both the request emailed to it, and, on December 12, 2022, that sent to it by regular mail.
More than seven days passed from the receipt of the request, on December 12, 2022, to the filing of the lawsuit, on December 20, 2022, yet the REM failed to pass a decision on the Nova S request even within the new deadline.
Nova S proposed to the Administrative Court to uphold the lawsuit and rule on the Nova S application of October 10, 2022, that is, to order the REM to pass a decision in accordance with the relevant provisions of the Law on Electronic Media.