Music Companies In Korea Guilty Of Price Fixing, Collusion For Boycotting DRM-Free Music Retailers
from the is-that-a-surprise? dept
For many years, we've wondered why there hasn't been a serious lawsuit brought against various companies in the music industry (and possibly the tech industry) for price fixing around digital music. The fact that the labels are dictating prices to retailers as well as all agreeing on identical prices certainly hints pretty strongly at price fixing or some form of collusion. But it seems that most folks just don't care. However, over in Korea, a bunch of digital music players -- including services, labels and telcos -- have been fined for price fixing (thanks to Bas for pointing this out). The details are a bit confusing in the link above, but other reports highlight that a part of the problem was the labels pulling music from services that didn't offer DRM. They also used this as an opportunity to fix prices:"In order to block competition coming from smaller businesses, the companies listed above rigged their own prices. By rigging the prices in compliance with one another, they placed great harm on the consumers and other businesses in the industry. Indeed, by equalizing the prices of their products, they've made the music industry believe that such a phenomenon was permanent. They have completely set up a blockade against the production of products that fit in different price categories. This is a violation of the consumer's right of choice."
Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.
–The Techdirt Team
Filed Under: drm, korea, music, price fixing
Reader Comments
Subscribe: RSS
View by: Time | Thread
first
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: first
We did (Strike One, Strike Two). You didn't get your check from the music industry when they were convicted of price fixing?
There is still an outstanding case against the big four for price-fixing in the US based on PressPlay and MusicNet. But that got set back in 2008 when the courts ruled that there wasn't enough evidence to move forward. However, the decision was appealed and the big four lost on appeal, so the case was back before the courts. The labels appealed to the Supreme Court, but the Supreme Court rejected it, so we might see some additional results from this case.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: first
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Solomon Weiss (convicted in 1982, guilty of racketeering, fraud and perjury charges and acquitted him of tax violations)
Ex-Vivendi executives convicted in France in 2011.
Edgar Bronfman Jr. (Convicted of insider trading, 5 million euros fines, 15 month prison suspended sentence)
Jean-Marie Messier (Convicted of misusing company funds, 150 thousand euro fines, 3 years prison suspended sentence)
Eric Licoys (suspended prison sentence)
Guillaume Hannezo (suspended prison sentence, 850 thousand euros fine)
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
I'ma gonna sen soma da boyz down to dat Korea place, have a little talk with the local constable, if ya know what I mean here.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re:
Quote:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Ugh
If you sell for more than your competition, you're "gouging".
If you sell for less than your competition, you're "dumping".
If you sell for the same as your compmetition, you're "price fixing".
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Ugh
While I'd certainly agree in other industries...I have a hard time believing that anti-trust laws are evil here. Especially when there is plenty of evidence that shows that the industry was fixing the prices of CDs and downloads.
The companies colluded to create artificial price floors and to remove vendors who dropped their prices below the floor. They subsidized advertising costs in exchange for promises from vendors to not allow their CDs to go for a price lower than a set price. Even looking at laws of supply and demand (even though in this case, supply is nearly infinite with downloads,) things didn't make sense when CDs from artists in low demand were being sold for the same price as those of high demand artists.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Ugh
And my point is: So?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Ugh
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Ugh
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Ugh
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/mediatechnologyandtelecoms/media/8357983/EU-raid s-publishers-in-ebook-price-fixing-probe.html
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Vivendi and Warner Guilty of Price Fixing
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Well, I guess you've got to price fix...
This is where "competitive pricing" simply means staying within a few cents of your competitors. The only thing stopping it from being near or at zero is the introduction of an artificial floor. Over here in the US, we have lots of senators and Congressmen who do a little floor carpentry on the side.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Well, I guess you've got to price fix...
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
I think the industry is full of crazy people who just lost it. There can be no explanation for all the dumb things they have been doing lately.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]