EU Settles Charges Against Six Studios
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The European Union closed antitrust cases Tuesday against six major Hollywood studios after they agreed to drop clauses in contracts with pay television operators that the EU charged inflated film prices.
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The European Union has imposed a 222.3-million-euro (151 million pound) fine on Europe&#39;s main makers of copper plumbing pipes for fixing prices and dividing up the market.
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Microsoft, Yahoo and Google have agreed to pay a combined $31.5 million to settle federal civil allegations they took ads for illegal gambling.
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European Union regulators Thursday cleared a joint venture between The Walt Disney Company, Columbia Pictures Corp. Ltd., and Britain&#39;s ON Demand Group to provide a video-on-demand service in Britain and Ireland.
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Warner Music Group and online retailer  AnywhereCD said on Thursday they have settled disputes over the  scope of their agreement and agreed on dismissing related  lawsuits.
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Company agrees to settle charges over copy-protection software it included in music CDs.
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Coca-Cola (KO) has settled  a five-year investigation by the European Union into allegations that the soft-drink company abused its market power to hurt rivals, the EU announced Tuesday.
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The Federation of the Phonographic Industry said it filed 459 lawsuits against illegal music file-sharers in Europe. The suits were filed on behalf of Warner Music Group.
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The European Union reached a settlement Tuesday of its long-running antitrust case against The Coca-Cola Co. under which the U.S. titan agreed to change sales practices that helped it win roughly half of the soft drink market in Europe.
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France, Britain and Germany announced today that they had reached a formal agreement with Iran that commits the country to suspend production of enriched uranium in exchange for an array of possible rewards.
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The Walt Disney Company today opted to settle American regulatorsâ charges that the company failed to disclose a variety of business relationships between the company and some members of its board.
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ST. LOUIS, Dec. 19 -- The three largest Internet companies agreed to pay a total of $31.5 million to settle civil allegations that they took ads for illegal gambling, a federal prosecutor said yesterday.
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The commercial insurer reached an agreement with  several states to pay $6 million to resolve an investigation into fees it paid to brokers.
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The European Commission ended its&#160;antitrust investigation into Apple&#160;after the company agreed to reduce the price of music downloads from its iTunes Web site in the U.K., the European Union&#39;s antitrust regulator said Wednesday.
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The 25-nation European Union reached an agreement in principle on a highly controversial reform of Europe&#039;s vast services sector.
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(InfoWorld) - The European Union's antitrust regulator has asked Hollywood studios to turn over information about their negotiations with the developers of high-definition DVD formats, giving them until the end of this week to respond. The European Commission is concerned that exclusive deals struck by some studios with the backers of either the HD DVD or Blu-ray Disc formats may be a sign of anticompetitive activity in the industry. HD DVD and Blu-ray Disc are competing for the attention of movie studios, which are increasingly releasing their films in high-definition format alongside the regular DVDs carrying standard-definition versions of the films. The Commission began looking for evidence of a possible infringement of E.U. antitrust regulations on its own initiative: there have been no complaints from companies in the industry, said Audrey Lemonnier, press officer for the cabinet of European Commissioner for Competition Neelie Kroes. The Commission wrote to a number of major studios in the first half of June, asking them for information about their dealings with the technology developers, Lemonnier said Tuesday. She would not say which studios received the letters, or how many were sent. The studios have until Friday to respond, she said. If the studios' answers give the Commission cause for doubt, it may launch a full investigation, she said. Film studios Twentieth Century Fox and Walt Disney release their high-definition content exclusively on Blu-ray Disc, although another member of the Blu-ray Disc Association (BDA), Warner Bros. Entertainment, has a foot in both camps: It also releases films on HD DVD. Blu-ray Disc also has the backing of Sony, which uses a Blu-ray Disc player in its PlayStation 3 game console, and computer makers such as Apple, Dell, and Hewlett-Packard. HD DVD has won the backing of Universal Studios, which releases high-definition movies exclusively in HD DVD format, and Microsoft, which uses it in its Xbox 360 game console. Over a million Blu-ray Discs have been sold to date, and 70 percent of high-definition video discs sold in the first quarter were in the Blu-ray format, according to the BDA. Anticompetitive activity can ultimately harm consumers, Lemonnier said. But consumers might prefer to see one format dominate the market, as VHS swept away videotape rival Betamax in an earlier battle over formats. As long as the two compete, and film studios choose one or the other, movie buffs are condemned to buy two players, or be unable to watch some films at home. Representatives for Blu-ray Disc backer Sony and HD DVD supporter Toshiba, and for the DVD Forum, which promotes the HD DVD format, all declined to comment on the Commission's action, saying that it was a matter for the Hollywood studios alone. The studios could not immediately be reached.
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'Cooperation is indispensable' Japan and the European Union have agreed to create an information exchange scheme to beat intellectual property crime. The countries made the agreement as part of a new trade co-operation deal.â¦