Italy's Antitrust body is investigating whether media tycoon Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi broke conflict of interest laws when his government approved a deal to help fund television technology.
"The probe regards the prime minister ... and aims to clarify whether there was a conflict of interest with regard to the funding set aside in the budget for the purchase of decoders," the authority said in a statement today.
Mr Berlusconi's office declined to comment. It is the second time this week a competition probe has been opened into the Berlusconi government's support for the set-top boxes needed to watch digital terrestrial television.
The European Commission - the EU's competition authority - on Wednesday launched an investigation into public grants to buyers of the decoders.
The probes may be a blow to broadcaster Mediaset, controlled by Mr Berlusconi's family, that has bet a large chunk of its future revenues on the technology.
Luciano Violante, the leader of the opposition party Democrats of the Left in the lower house of parliament, first suggested earlier in December that Berlusconi had broken conflict of interest laws with the deal to support the development of Italian digital terrestrial TV.
Mr Violante told parliament that next year's budget contained a measure favouring a company run by Berlusconi's brother Paolo, that makes the technology.
Mr Berlusconi broke Italy's conflict of interest law because he was present when the budget was approved, Violante said.