Brussels, 27/10/2004 (Agence Europe) - The European Commission has closed, with a positive decision, the investigation it opened on contracts between European pay-TVs and six Hollywood studios, further to changes proposed by these latter. The studios in question are Buena Vista International Inc, Warner Bros, Entertainment Inc, 20th Century Fox Film Corp, Sony Pictures Entertainment Inc, MGM Studios Inc and Dreamworks LLC. The Commission opened the investigation procedure in May 2002, having discovered that most of the exclusive broadcasting rights contracts ("output deals") which the big American studios (the "Majors") concluded with European pay-TV channels included so-called "MFN" clauses (Most Favoured Nation, in reference to the international commercial law but which actually establish the principle of "most favoured supplier"). If these contracts are common in the Hollywood film industry, the studios generally agree to sell broadcasters all of their production over a number of years, MFN clauses entail an alignment (upwards) of prices paid by the television channels for their distribution rights, stresses the Commission. It is worth noting that within these clauses, European pay-TVs undertake to pay the same to all studios for re-transmission rights (see EUROPE of 8 July 2003). Any price increase concluded with one Major will also entitle the other studios to the equivalent price increase. This process causes an artificial increase in prices, "an anomalous way of setting prices which is at odds with the basic principle of price competition", states the Commission. The eight studios in question deny having infringed European law, but six of them have agreed to change the clauses in their contracts. The investigation remains open against NBC Universal and Paramount Pictures Corp Inc, which have refused to bring in the necessary changes.