US: Directors Guild Opposes gov’s move to end Paramount Decrees

The Directors Guild of America (DGA) has announced it’s opposing the Justice Department’s efforts to terminate the Paramount consent decrees, calling those efforts “a step in the wrong direction.”

Makan Delrahim, the head of the Department’s antitrust division, announced in a speech on November 18 that he would take action to end the decrees, which he argued are antiquated and “no longer meet consumer interests,” reported Deadline. 

The decrees were the result of 10 years of antitrust litigation, which ended with a Supreme Court decision in the government’s favor in 1948, and required studios to divest themselves of their theatrical arms and prohibited certain anti-competitive practices in the distribution business.

“In this new Gilded Age, the Department of Justice’s recent move to end the Paramount Consent Decrees is a step in the wrong direction,” the DGA said. “While the motion picture and television industry has changed in the 70 years since the first Decree was signed, many of those changes – precipitated by new tech giant entrants – call for greater, not lesser, antitrust oversight.”

“To defend competition in the motion picture marketplace, the DOJ must combat predatory and monopolistic practices,” the guild also said. “Fair competition is especially imperative for both independent films and small and independent theaters. Most importantly, a fair and robust market ensures our members and other creators have the widest possible opportunities for work, and audiences who want to enjoy the experience of seeing a motion picture in a theater have access to the very best and most diverse content no matter where they live.”

Full Content: Deadline

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