LONDON — (CNN) Europe has filed antitrust charges against U.K. pay television service Sky TV and six major Hollywood film studios, accusing them of illegally curbing access to movies and TV shows for some viewers.
The six studios include Disney, Comcast-owned NBCUniversal, Paramount Pictures, Sony, Twentieth Century Fox, and Warner Bros. (Warner Bros. is a unit of Time Warner, which owns CNN.)
The EU says the studios and Sky unfairly prevent consumers located in elsewhere in Europe to access pay-TV services available in the UK and Ireland.
“European consumers want to watch the pay-TV channels of their choice regardless of where they live or travel in the EU,” Margrethe Vestager, the E.U. commissioner in charge of competition, said.
The European Union has recently launched several antitrust cases against big American companies.
Apple, Facebook, Amazon, Qualcomm and Google are all feeling the pressure, finding themselves under the scrutiny of authorities.
The EU has also accused Mastercard of overcharging consumers with the fees the company charges.
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