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Time Warner Cable Box Rental Inspired Antitrust Lawsuit
EmagGeek writes "Matthey Meeds, a real-estate agent, was so irritated about having to pay the monthly rental fee that on Tuesday he filed an antitrust suit against Time Warner Cable and its 84 percent owner, Time Warner Inc. The suit alleges that, by linking the provision of premium cable services to rental of the cable box, the companies have established illegal tying arrangements. 'Time Warner's improper tying and bundling harms competition,' Meeds' lawsuit states. 'Since the class can only rent the cable box directly from Time Warner, manufacturers of cable boxes are foreclosed from renting and/or selling cable boxes directly to members of the class at a lower cost.' I pay Comcast over $25/mo for my two DVRs. I'd love to just be able to buy them or build my own. I can't wait to see how this unfolds."
This is absolutely stupid, cause he can get his own cable box. As long as it has a cable card slot to accept TWC cable card, he can get whatever settop box he wants. I have a TiVo box that I use for my DVR service, and a cable card from TWC. I own the TiVo box, and it works fine on TWC's network. TWC can't control if no company in his local area sells cable boxes... and then he is even more retarded, because its called buying the box on the Internet. What an idiot.