Besides political and legislative initiatives, the Commission has launched several competition exercises.

• An e-commerce inquiry on 6 May where the Commission is checking the application of competition law in the areas of e-commerce area and in particular as regards potential barriers erected by companies to cross-border online trade digital content. Some of these barriers can be addressed by competition law, especially when they include contractual restrictions in distribution agreements that prevent retailers from selling goods or services purchased online to customers located in another EU country.
• Antitrust inquiry into agreements between Sky UK and the studios. The Commission sent in July 2015 a Statement of objection to Sky UK and six major US film studios: Disney, NBC, Universal, Paramount Pictures, Sony, Twentieth Century Fox and Warner Bros. The Commission takes the preliminary view that each of the six studios and Sky UK have bilaterally agreed to put in place contractual restrictions that prevent Sky UK from allowing EU consumers located elsewhere to access, via satellite or online, pay-TV services available in the UK and Ireland. Without these restrictions, Sky UK would be free to decide on commercial grounds whether to sell its pay-TV services to such consumers requesting access to its services, taking into account the regulatory framework including, as regards online pay-TV services, the relevant national copyright laws.