Court condemns distribution trust
by Vitor Pinto
The Spanish Court for Defence of Competition condemned the Spanish branches of Walt Disney/Buena Vista International, 20th Century Fox International, Sony Pictures, United International Pictures and Warner Bros for practises inhibiting free competition in the local distribution market. The five major companies were imposed a €2.4m fine, while the Federation of Cinematographic Distributors (Fedicine) was fined €900,000.
This unprecedented court decision is the answer to the 2003 claim of the Spanish Federation of Cinema Exhibitors (FECE), which denounced the unsustainable situation imposed upon them by the US studios. FECE accused them of building a "cartel" and obliging Spanish exhibitors to pay 15% more to the US distributors than to their European counterparts.
According to the Court, the distribution companies have shared "a substantial part of the film distribution market" by concerting their commercial policies towards film exhibitors.
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