On 22 April 2016, the European Commission published for comment the first set of commitments offered in the UK Pay-TV investigations. Those commitments represent an important milestone in the Commission’s efforts to reduce the effects of territorial restrictions in content licensing agreements and may foreshadow the legislative proposals which the Commission has announced for the coming months. Background On 23 July 2015, the European Commission adopted a Statement of Objections against six major Hollywood studios…

The European Commission’s newly published geo-blocking issues paper concludes that geo-blocking practices are widespread across sales of both consumer goods and digital content. The Commission has reconfirmed its intention to look carefully at such practices under the EU competition rules particularly where underpinned by agreements. This suggests a range of distribution and licensing arrangements are likely to be subject to further scrutiny. However, the Commission has also re-emphasised the principal that unilateral decisions to limit…