A federal district judge in San Antonio, Texas, threw out an antitrust lawsuit today against Blockbuster Inc. (Dallas), ruling that the plaintiffs — three independent video stores charging collusion between the video chain and the major movie studios — had not proved their case.
The suit, brought by three independent video retailers in California, New York and Texas, also charged five major movie studios – Universal Studios, Buena Vista, Paramount Pictures, Columbia Tri-Star and 20th Century Fox.
They accused Blockbuster of conspiring with the studios to drive them out of business by sharing revenue with the studios in exchange for receiving more copies of popular new movies at lower prices.
Blockbuster ceo John Antioco had testified that the deals were intended to improve customer service by making sure copies of popular new films were available. Before the policy of guaranteeing the availability of new releases was started in 1997, he said, customers frequently left the stores empty-handed and Blockbuster was losing money.
“We're still convinced that we have a viable cause of action,” said a lawyer for the plaintiffs, “and we're seriously considering an appeal.”