Again, indies are dismissed: California judge tosses suit.(Blockbuster and major studios receive favorable ruling in antitrust lawsuit)

Video Business, February, 2003 by Sweeting, Paul

Blockbuster Video and the major Hollywood studios won another court battle against independent retailers when a California Superior Court judge last week dismissed the antitrust lawsuit filed against them. In dismissing the case on all counts, California Court judge Victoria Chaney rejected claims that the studios and Blockbuster had conspired to deny competitors revenue-sharing deals comparable to Blockbuster's and agreed with the studio defendants that they entered into the agreements for competitive reasons.

"Taken as a whole, plaintiffs' evidence does not point to conspiracy as more likely than permissible competition," Chaney wrote in a 20-page ruling. "To the extent that these defendants entered into these agreements to meet competition,...

Read the rest of this article with a Free Trial at HighBeam Research.

Premium Content Partnership | HighBeam Research provides an in-depth online archive library of reference works.