The Spanish Exhibitors'Federation said it is gathering evidence for a new formal complaint to Spain's Competition Defense Service against the Hollywood majors.

The Federation, known asFECE, won a case against five multinationals in a landmark ruling by Spain's Competition Defense Court last May. Disney/Buena Vista, Sony Pictures, HispanoFox, UIP and the now defunct joint venture Warner Sogefilms were fined $3m (Euros2.4m) each for anti-competitive practices in Spain including price fixing. All of the studios arebelieved to have appealed the ruling by the deadline last July.

In a press release, FECEquoted figures that the five studios had lifted their market share in Spain to 80% for the first nine months of 2006, arise it posited "accents the majors' control on the sector," demonstratingthat despite the May ruling, "the situation... has not changed at all."

"Abuses continue takingplace on the part of the majors, which act in an agreed upon way in theimposition of prices on copies of film releases. Concretely, this situation hasoccured with the biggest box office hits of the last few months, where pricesof copies exceeded average prices in countries around us in Europe by 10 points."

FECE additionally accusedthe Ministry of Culture's film institute ICAA of remaining "passive" to themajors' monopoly position.