EU to Probe Possible Antitrust Violations of Blu-ray, HD DVD Licenses

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on July 27, 2006 - 7:07pm.

Brussels - The European Commission has launched an antitrust probe into the licensing schemes created by the developers of next-generation Blu-ray and HD DVD technologies, Reuters reported. The Commission said it is looking into whether licensing terms for the groups of patents held by companies that contributed to the development of Sony's Blu-ray and Toshiba's HD DVD violate EU competition rules, but did not provide further details on the requests for information it sent to the companies. Following the probe, the EU may either choose to launch a formal investigation, or discontinue the inquiry.
http://tinyurl.com/qu4ju (Reuters)