Europe probing big tech's new high-resolution video standard - Reuters
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European antitrust regulators are putting new pressure on big U.S. tech, Reuters reports.
That comes through a new investigation of the video licensing policy of the Alliance for Open Media, a group that counts Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) (GOOGL), Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN), Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) and Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) as members.
That group is working on a new industry standard approach (AV1) for streaming higher-quality 4K-resolution video on browsers, devices, apps and gaming. It also includes hardware participants in Intel (INTC), Huawei, Samsung (OTC:SSNLF) and Nvidia (NVDA).
AV1 hasn't earned wide acceptance yet, but it is trickling into applications, Reuters noted: Netflix (NFLX) and YouTube (GOOG) (GOOGL) have started using it in some instances, and browsers including Google's Chrome and Firefox have started supporting it.
The European Commission says it 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."
That approach might block those who want to compete with the AV1 specification, the EC says.