Redbox have filed a lawsuit against Disney, claiming the Mouse House misuses its copyright to halt the rental and sale of its movies through the service.

The kiosk service is likely a familiar sight to most consumers. The now-iconic ‘red boxes’ can be found in most major grocery stores, and offer physical rentals at a $1 a day price point. It, arguably, makes movies far more accessible to a wider audience.

However, in a suit filed against Disney home entertainment group, Redbox claims that the company is attempting to interfere with its model by preventing the sale and rental of its titles.

“Disney baldly seeks to stifle competition and eliminate low-cost options in order to maximize the prices it and its retailers charge consumers,” Redbox argued in their suit. “Stopping Redbox’s sale of Disney products is a means to that end, which is an unhappy one for consumers.”

According to Redbox, Disney has always opposed their service. Redbox have claimed that Disney believe that the service will depress the value of their movies.

Disney attempted to impose a restriction on Redbox, stating that they could not rent or sell their movies until 28 days after release. Redbox resisted that restriction by purchasing Combination Pacs at full retail price, and splitting them to provide them for sale and rental. Allegedly, Disney have also put continued pressure on distributors in order to minimize Redbox’s access to their titles.

The Mouse House have an active lawsuit against Redbox, which aims to prevent Redbox from selling the digital downloads it acquires via the purchase of Combo Pacs.

“Defendants’ actions are harming Redbox’s lawful sales of Disney digital movies,” Redbox further stated in its suit. “The impact of that harm is not limited to the reduced revenue from those lost sales. Redbox’s entry into the digital market is being harmed as well. Because Disney is impeding Redbox’s ability to sell Redbox’s lawfully acquired Disney digital movies, consumers are being dissuaded from looking to Redbox as a source of titles that are in high demand.”