Google, Apple, other Big Tech firms face antitrust investigation over AV1 license scheme
The Alliance for Open Media or AOM is a conglomerate mostly comprising familiar names from Big Tech that was founded in 2015 to build open-source video technologies and standards meant for the masses. This coalition is responsible for the one of the newest media formats on the block, AV1 — short for AOMedia Video 1 — offering significant upgrades over the VP9 and x264 codecs. But how AV1 is proliferating may be cause for trouble and major fines as European regulators have now confirmed a preliminary investigation into the group, specifically focusing on its licensing rules.
In a questionnaire that was reportedly forwarded to a handful of tech companies some months ago and obtained by Reuters, the European Commission noted that the alliance and its members had been imposing mandatory royalty-free cross licensing terms when it was distributing the AV1 format to companies whose patents were deemed essential to contributing to the standard's specification. Importantly, these companies were not associated with AOM at the time of AV1's creation.
Additionally, the commission sought to learn more about the alliance's patent licensing clause which would see the cancellation of the innovators' licenses if they file a lawsuit against the new video format.
The commission's primary concern is that the AV1 licensing terms could be hindering innovation and thus making it unfeasible for new entities to flourish. It's not entirely clear how fines will be determined, but each company involved in the cartel could ultimately pay up to 10% of their annual revenue.
While confirming that it is investigating AOM, an EU spokesperson stated that this doesn't guarantee the alliance's culpability in the case; a standard response when an investigation is in its early stages.
This enforcement action could be a precursor to the EU's proposed policy changes scheduled for 2023, potentially forcing Big Tech to change how it manages online content.
Members of AOM, including Apple, Broadcom, Cisco, Google, Microsoft, Netflix, and Tencent, did not respond to Reuters' request for comment. Meanwhile, Amazon and Meta refused to say anything about the alleged violations.
Platforms have been slow to pick up AV1 in its early days with most of its adoptions happening only recently. Netflix began using AV1 a couple of years ago and is among the few big platforms to support it in addition to Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge, and YouTube. Mozilla Firefox is the latest web browser to pick up AV1 as it did earlier this year. On a wider scale, chipmaker Qualcomm announced its future Snapdragon SoCs would be able to natively decode AV1.
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