By Chris Holbrook, 12 June 2001 16:15
NEWS The major distributors of DVDs in Europe are set to get a grilling from EC officials. Complaints about the pricing of DVDs were raised after it was revealed UK customers are paying £4 more than their American cousins. This has not gone unnoticed by EC spokesman Michael Tscherny, who has written to seven companies including AOL Time Warner, Disney and Twentieth Century Fox, to investigate whether colluding US distributors are using the 'regions' system to artificially inflate prices. Regional coding is supposed to reduce piracy and stop DVDs bought in the US being played on a standard UK DVD player. The commission is likely to take up to two months to reach initial conclusions, but if found guilty of price fixing the EC has the power to fine companies a maximum of 10 per cent of their annual turnover.
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