The investigation is the latest to hit the tech industry,
which will be subject to tough new rules in Europe next year that could force
companies to change their core business models and do more to tackle illegal
content on their platforms.
"The Commission confirms that it has a preliminary
investigation ongoing into AOM's licensing policy," a spokesperson for the
EU executive told Reuters.
"The fact that the Commission has a preliminary
investigation does not prejudge the outcome of the investigation on the
existence of an infringement," the spokesperson said, without providing
further details.
AOM did not immediately respond to an emailed request for
comment. Founded in 2015, the group aims to create a new standard software for
streaming higher-quality 4K video on browsers, devices, apps, and gaming, known
as AV1.
While the AV1 software is not yet adopted widely, Netflix
and YouTube have started using it for some customers, and browsers such as
Google Chrome and Firefox have started to support the new format.
Apple and Google did not immediately respond to an emailed
request for comment. Meta and Amazon declined to comment. Microsoft, Netflix,
Broadcom, Cisco, and Tencent, who are also AOM members, did not immediately
respond to emailed requests for comment.
Intel, Huawei, Mozilla, Samsung, and Nvidia are also AOM
members, according to its website.
In a questionnaire sent to some companies earlier this year
and seen by Reuters, the EU watchdog said it was investigating alleged
anti-competitive behaviour related to the license terms of AV1 by AOM and its
members in Europe.
"The Commission has information that AOM and its
members may be imposing licensing terms (mandatory royalty-free cross
licensing) on innovators that were not a part of AOM at the time of the
creation of the AV1 technical, but whose patents are deemed essential to (its)
technical specifications," the paper said.
It said this action may be restricting the innovators'
ability to compete with the AV1 technical specification, and also eliminate
incentives for them to innovate.
The questionnaire also asked about the impact of an AOM
patent license clause in which licensees would have their patent licenses
terminated immediately if they launched patent lawsuits asserting that
implementation infringes their claims.
Companies risk fines of up to 10 percent of their global
turnover for breaching EU antitrust rules. © Reuters
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