E.U. Regulators Probe DVD Pricing

Noting that the price of the average movie on DVD is far higher in Europe than America, European Union regulators said Monday that they will look into pricing policies of DVD distributors. It said it has sent letters about the matter to the Walt Disney Co., AOL Time Warner, 20th Century Fox, Vivendi Universal, Paramount, MGM and Sony Pictures. Today’s (Tuesday) Screen Daily, the online publication of the U.K.’s Screen International, quoted EU competition commissioner Mario Monti as saying, “We have received a significant number of complaints from private citizens on this matter. In each case the complaint is virtually the same — namely, that DVD prices are significantly higher in the E.U. than in the U.S.” Bloomberg News quoted a Disney spokesperson as saying that the studio intends to cooperate fully with the probe. Other studio spokespersons either declined to discuss the matter or were unavailable.