Tech group AOM’s video licensing policy no longer in EU antitrust crosshairs

The Alliance for Open Media (AOM), whose members include Alphabet unit Google, Amazon, Apple and Meta, on Tuesday dodged a possible fine after EU antitrust regulators closed an investigation into its video licensing policy.

The European Commission, which acts as the competition enforcer for the 27-country bloc, had been investigating alleged anti-competitive behaviour related to the licence terms of AOM’s new standard software for streaming called AV1 since last year.

“The Commission decided to close the investigation for priority reasons. The closure is not a finding of compliance or non-compliance of the conduct in question with EU competition rules,” a spokesperson for the EU executive said in an email.