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1. Public funds or any other consideration or advantage made available, directly or indirectly, by public authorities or entities to media service providers or providers of online platforms for state advertising or supply or service contracts concluded with media service providers or providers of online platforms shall be awarded in accordance with transparent, objective, proportionate and non-discriminatory criteria, made publicly available in advance by electronic and user-friendly means, and by means of open, proportionate and non-discriminatory procedures. Member States shall seek to ensure that the overall yearly public expenditure allocated for state advertising is distributed to a wide plurality of media service providers represented on the market, taking into account the national and local specificities of the media markets concerned. This Article shall not affect the awarding of public contracts and concession contracts under Union public procurement rules or the application of Union State aid rules.

2. Public authorities or entities shall make publicly available by electronic and user-friendly means information on an annual basis about their public expenditure for state advertising. That information shall include at least the following:

(a) the legal names of the media service providers or the providers of online platforms from which services were purchased;

(b) where applicable, the legal names of the business groups of which any media service providers or providers of online platforms as referred to in point (a) are part; and (c) the total annual amount spent and the annual amounts spent per media service provider or provider of an online platform. Member States may exempt subnational governments of territorial entities of less than 100 000 inhabitants, and entities controlled, directly or indirectly, by such subnational governments, from the obligation under point (b) of the first subparagraph.

3. National regulatory authorities or bodies or other competent independent authorities or bodies in the Member States shall monitor and report annually on the allocation of state advertising expenditure to media service providers and to providers of online platforms based on the information listed in paragraph 2. Those annual reports shall be made publicly available in an easily accessible manner. In order to assess the completeness of the information on state advertising made available pursuant to paragraph 2, national regulatory authorities or bodies or other competent independent authorities or bodies in the Member States may request from the public authorities or entities referred to in the first subparagraph of paragraph 2 further information, including more detailed information on the application of the criteria and procedures referred to in paragraph 1. Where the monitoring, assessment and reporting are carried out by other competent independent authorities or bodies in the Member States, they shall keep the national regulatory authorities or bodies duly informed.