77 248. The Court underlines that the specific provisions relating to concession renewals are to be found in the Regulations of the Telecommunications Organic Law on administrative authorizations and concessions for the use and exploitation of the electromagnetic spectrum, which indicate that “[t]he concessions for the use and exploitation of the electromagnetic spectrum granted by the Minister for Infrastructure of the National Telecommunications Commission, may be renewed, as appropriate, by a request submitted by the titleholder at least 90 calendar days before the date of its expiry, failing which he may be required to initiate the procedure to obtain a new concession for the use and exploitation of the electromagnetic spectrum. For the purposes of the renewal, full compliance with the obligations derived from the respective concession will be taken into account.”307 In this regard, the administrative Decree on General Conditions for Sound Radio and Free-to-air Television Authorizations added that “[t]he competent body shall take the applicable decision within ninety (90) calendar days of the submission of the request.”308 249. Consequently, the Court recalls the statement made by witness José Leonardo Suárez that “when RCTV submitted its request for renewal, according to the instruments of the Telecommunications Organic Law and its Regulation, it should have done so at least 90 days before its administrative title expired, in this case the concession. It was then incumbent on CONATEL to review the request at a substantiation stage because […] the authority to grant or renew a radio or television concession corresponds only and exclusively to the representative of the State which, in this case […], was the Ministry of Telecommunications and Information Technology, which is one of the bodies that has authority to do this, and not CONATEL, which is responsible for receiving information and verifying it.”309 250. On January 24, 2007, RCTV’s legal representatives submitted a new request to CONATEL in which they requested this organ to issue new concession titles to the station based on the following norms: (i) according to the provisions of article 210 of the LOTEL, for the 20-year period starting on June 12, 2002, because “the process of transformation of the previous concessions into the new titles should have been completed [on the said date and] at that time, the 20-year extension established in article 3 of Decree No. 1577 should have begun”; (ii) alternatively, based on article 3 of Decree No. 1577, until May 27, 2027, because, if May 27, 2007, was considered the date of expiry of the concession, they asked that “the new titles be issued to RCTV [recognizing] the acquired right to the additional 20-year extension established therein,” or (iii) also alternatively, that the procedure for the transformation of the titles be completed and they be renewed “pursuant to the provisions of article 80(2) of the Regulations for Administrative Authorizations and Concessions for the Use and Exploitation of the Electromagnetic Spectrum […] and article 9 of the Decree on General Conditions for Sound Radio and Free-to-air Television Authorizations.”310 251. Accordingly, the Court concludes that a procedure did exist for the transformation of the titles and for the renewal of concessions in the laws of Venezuela and that the RCTV legal representatives initiated this procedure by submitting the said requests. However, it notes that the State took the decision not to apply the procedure. Consequently, the Court will now assess the reasons given by the State for why it did not follow the said procedure. Regulations for the Telecommunications Organic Law on Administrative Authorizations and Concessions for the Use and exploitation of the Radio Spectrum, 2000, article 80(2) (evidence file, folio 2132). 307 Decree on General Conditions for Sound Radio and Free-to-air Television Authorizations, article 9 (evidence file, folio 28260). 308 309 Statement by witness José Leonardo Suárez during the public hearing in this case. Cf. Request presented to CONATEL on January 24, 2007, by Gustavo J. Reyna, Pedro Perera Riera, José Valentín González, José Humberto Frías and Alvaro Guerrero Hardy, as “legal representatives of the commercial company Radio Caracas Televisión RCTV” (evidence file, folios 3063 to 3091). 310