Fører støtte til fitness og dans til forvridning af konkurrencen?

A large number of private Danish companies offer memberships to fitness centres and dance studios on market terms. However, non-profit clubs and societies offer similar services while receiving public subsidies.

This study investigates whether or not those subsidies lead to distortion of competition.

The results indicate that distortion on a national level is unlikely due to the limited size of the total subsidies to fitness clubs and dance studios. However, for fitness clubs the results also indicate a risk of local distortion of competition.

This finding is based on following evidence:

• a survey of the subsidies received by a sample of fitness clubs showing that in some cases the subsidies are significant relative to the price of a commercial membership
• a mapping of locations for fitness commercial fitness centres and fitness clubs receiving subsidies showing that there are numerous instances, where the two are in close proximity to each other
• a survey among fitness users showing considerable overlap between users of commercial fitness centres and subsidized fitness clubs.

For dance studios, the results indicate only a moderate risk of local distortion of competition. This is due to evidence largely similar to that for fitness clubs with one notable exception, which is a lesser degree of overlap between users of commercial and subsidized dance studios.

The study was commissioned by the Danish Competition and Consumer Authority.