Cross-border pay-TV case

Film studios such as Paramount, Disney or Fox typically license their audiovisual content to pay-TV broadcasters such as Sky or Canal Plus on a territorial basis, for example one in each EU Member State. Contractual clauses in these agreements require pay-tv providers to block consumers from outside the territory they are given exclusivity in, a practice called geo-blocking, which BEUC has campaigned against. Back in 2014, the European Commission opened an investigation into such geo-blocking clauses against different film studios and Sky.

In 2016, Paramount provided commitments that it would stop the problematic contractual clauses which harmed competition in the Single Market and restricted consumer choice. However, Canal + opposed the commitments offered by Paramount, which had been accepted and made binding by the Commission, and started court proceedings before the European courts.

BEUC was a third party throughout the administrative procedures before the Commission and later joined the court proceedings in support of the European Commission’s decision both before the General Court and the Court of Justice of the EU.

A 2018 judgement from the General Court dismissed the case by Canal +, earning the Commission and BEUC victory. After Canal + appealed, although the Court of Justice of the EU ruled in favour of Canal + on procedural grounds, it also confirmed in 2020 that geo-blocking clauses are likely to be incompatible with the EU’s Single Market and therefore the European Commission was right to investigate them in the first place.

This case is a small but important step in building a true Single Market for consumers, where they can decide to access products, services and content from whichever provider they want in the EU and without being discriminated on the basis of their location or country of residence.