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Paramount's pledge in 2016 in return for an end
to an EU investigation was a key victory for the European
Commission in its crackdown on so-called geoblocking, where
companies stop consumers in another EU country from buying their
products or services.
But it effectively killed off licensing agreements between
studios and EU broadcasters, including deals involving Canal+,
which the French company argued breached third-party rights and
contract law.
Three years later, Disney, NBCUniversal, Sony Pictures, Warner
Bros and Sky TV struck a similar deal to Paramount with the
Commission, which acts as the EU competition enforcer.
Canal+ initially took its case to the Luxembourg-based General
Court, Europe's second-highest, arguing the Paramount deal
violated the interests and procedural rights of third parties
and that its own agreement with Paramount was justified by
intellectual property laws. But it lost.
It then appealed to the EU Court of Justice (CJEU), Europe's top
court, which on Wednesday backed its arguments.
"By adopting the decision at issue, the Commission rendered the
contractual rights of the third parties meaningless, including
the contractual rights of Groupe Canal + vis-à-vis Paramount,
and thereby infringed the principle of proportionality, with the
result that the decision at issue must be annulled," judges
said.
The judgment marked yet another court defeat for EU antitrust
regulators in a key case. The General Court in July upheld
Apple's challenge against a $15 billion tax order and in May
backed CK Hutchison Holdings Ltd in its fight against an EU
antitrust veto on its 10.3 billion pound bid for O2 UK in 2016.
The case is C-132/19 P Groupe Canal+ v Commission.
(Reporting by Foo Yun Chee; Editing by Mark Potter)
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