The European Union, in its ongoing quest to stop a handful of media conglomerates from dominating Europe, has formally charged Disney, Universal, Paramount, Sony, 20th Century Fox and Warner Bros. of breaking antitrust laws. Sky TV was also not left out.
Back in January 2014, the European Commission announced that it was investigating the studios and Sky, which is based in the U.K. and Ireland. The EU alleges that Sky and the studios are working together to make it harder for Europeans outside the U.K. and Ireland to access movies on pay-TV services.
According to CNNMoney, the EU claims that the studios and Sky have an agreement to block films on Sky outside of the U.K. and Ireland. In return, the studios agree to give Sky “territorial exclusivity” by not making some films available for other pay-TV services.
The EU believes that this deal is against its single-market principle by splicing up the TV markets and sets prices by national borders.
“European consumers want to watch the pay-TV channels of their choice regardless of where they live or travel in the EU. Our EU economy Internet antitrust investigation shows that they cannot do this today,” EU Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager said in a statement today, reports the AFP. “We believe that this may be in breach of EU competition rules. The studios and Sky UK now have the chance to respond to our concerns.”
More specifically, the investigation looked into copyright laws that still let Hollywood studios treat EU countries as individual markets, rather than one entire market. Therefore, the Commission will also investigate similar deals with pay-TV networks in France, Italy, Germany and Spain.