Just wondering if we'll ever see actions like this in the U.S. Not likely, since the movie industry is such a huge political contributor just to prevent little annoyances like this:
The European Union filed antitrust claims against a British broadcaster and six major U.S. film studios, including global powerhouse Disney, accusing the companies of unfairly limiting pan-European access to programming on pay-TV services.
The charges stem from investigations launched in 2012 into whether satellite or streaming services possibly blocked customers from across the 28-nation European Union from viewing some programming — and instead limited customers to specific regional zones.
In January, a group of top European pay-networks and the American studios were formally advised of the probe on behalf on a range of European broadcasters.
The decision Thursday appeared to narrow the case to specifically cite complaints against British network Sky UK and the six studios — Disney, NBCUniversal, Paramount Pictures, Sony, Twentieth Century Fox and Warner Bros. — that they restrict full access to movies and other content across the entire European Union.
Among the claims is that Sky subscribers are blocked from accessing its full offerings of films and television series once outside Britain and Ireland.
“European consumers want to watch the pay-TV channels of their choice regardless of where they live or travel in the E.U.,” said the bloc’s competition commissioner, Margrethe Vestager
