MUMBAI: Seven distributor associations across India who were, in an order of the Competition Commission Of India (CCI), told to pay a penalty of 10 per cent of their annual income against following alleged unfair laws, have decided to file an appeal in the Supreme Court against the ruling.

It was last Saturday when the CCI gave its judgement asking these associations to co-operate with production houses like Reliance Entertainment, UTV Motion Pictures, Eros International and Shree Ashtavinayak Cinevision.

Besides, it has also ordered that associations can no longer compel anyone to become their member as a pre-condition for the exhibition of the film in territories under their control and can‘t discriminate between regional and non-regional movies with an undertaking that they won‘t restrict the number of screens for any film.

The associations are the Karnataka Film Chamber of Commerce (KFCC), Central Circuit Cine Association (CCCA), Bihar and Jharkhand Motion Pictures Association (BJMPA), and two others.

As a fall out of the order, other distributor associations that would be affected are Eastern India Motion Picture Association (EIMPA), Hyderabad State Film Chamber of Commerce, Northern India Motion Pictures Association, Indian Motion Pictures Distributors Association, Orissa Film Distributors Syndicate and The Chennai Kanchipuram Thiruvallur District Films Distributors Association.

The legal dispute started after Rakesh Roshan‘s Kites, distributed by Reliance, was not allowed to play in 50-60 screens due to a KFCC diktat. Later, other corporates like UTV and Eros, who were penalised by Rs 500,000 for not agreeing to the associations‘ timeline for satellite screening and home video release of their films like Kurbaan and Housefull, also joined in.