The 'Pay TV' Case: An Attempt to Reform EU Copyright Law Through Competition Enforcement?

Italian Antitrust Review, Vol 5, No 1 (2018)

10 Pages Posted: 22 Aug 2018

See all articles by Marco Lo Bue

Marco Lo Bue

Government of the Italian Republic (Italy) - Italian Competition Authority

Date Written: August 9, 2018

Abstract

This paper examines the “Pay-tv” case currently investigated by the European Commission and calls into question the consistency of the proceedings on the following grounds:
a) the Commission seems to have misread the CJEU’s case law on which its allegations are founded;
b) the way the Commission has interpreted the parties’ conducts from an antitrust perspective does not take into account the applicable copyright regulatory framework;
c) the fact that the Commission has accepted the commitments submitted by one of the US film studios involved in the investigation implies that the conducts under exam are not anticompetitive by-object.
The Commission seems to try to overcome geo-blocking and the territoriality of copyright by means of an antitrust investigation which aims to outlaw “copyright-compliant” licenses assigned on a national basis. Is this approach lawful?

Keywords: EU competition law, licensing agreements, hardcore restrictions, copyright law, InfoSoc Directive, SatCab Directive

JEL Classification: K20, K21

Suggested Citation

Lo Bue, Marco, The 'Pay TV' Case: An Attempt to Reform EU Copyright Law Through Competition Enforcement? (August 9, 2018). Italian Antitrust Review, Vol 5, No 1 (2018), Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3229651

Marco Lo Bue (Contact Author)

Government of the Italian Republic (Italy) - Italian Competition Authority ( email )

Switzerland

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