European Knight
07-23-2015, 11:53 AM
Studios include Disney, Sony Pictures, Twentieth Century Fox and Warner Bros.
BRUSSELS—Europe’s antitrust regulator has filed formal charges against six major U.S. film studios and U.K. pay-TV broadcaster Sky UK Ltd., warning that contracts agreed on by the companies that restrict access to Sky’s services outside Britain may violate EU laws.
The six studios are Disney, NBCUniversal, Paramount Pictures, Sony Pictures Entertainment Inc., Twentieth Century Fox and Warner Bros. Entertainment.
The charges come amid a broader push by the EU to smash down barriers to a single market for digital services in the region. Regulators are focusing in particular on eliminating so-called geo-blocking, where firms block access to films or
other online content outside a particular licensed territory.
The European Commission, the bloc’s top antitrust authority, said Thursday that contracts agreed between Sky and the six studios may have prevented Sky from offering its U.K. and Irish pay-TV services to EU consumers elsewhere.
If that preliminary view is confirmed, “the clauses would constitute a serious violation of EU rules that prohibit anticompetitive agreements,” the EU said.
EU Files Antitrust Charges Against Six U.S. Film Studios - WSJ (http://www.wsj.com/articles/eu-files-antitrust-charges-against-six-u-s-film-studios-1437646706)
BRUSSELS—Europe’s antitrust regulator has filed formal charges against six major U.S. film studios and U.K. pay-TV broadcaster Sky UK Ltd., warning that contracts agreed on by the companies that restrict access to Sky’s services outside Britain may violate EU laws.
The six studios are Disney, NBCUniversal, Paramount Pictures, Sony Pictures Entertainment Inc., Twentieth Century Fox and Warner Bros. Entertainment.
The charges come amid a broader push by the EU to smash down barriers to a single market for digital services in the region. Regulators are focusing in particular on eliminating so-called geo-blocking, where firms block access to films or
other online content outside a particular licensed territory.
The European Commission, the bloc’s top antitrust authority, said Thursday that contracts agreed between Sky and the six studios may have prevented Sky from offering its U.K. and Irish pay-TV services to EU consumers elsewhere.
If that preliminary view is confirmed, “the clauses would constitute a serious violation of EU rules that prohibit anticompetitive agreements,” the EU said.
EU Files Antitrust Charges Against Six U.S. Film Studios - WSJ (http://www.wsj.com/articles/eu-files-antitrust-charges-against-six-u-s-film-studios-1437646706)