It seems that that Warner and Universal fought the law and the law won. The full Federal Court sent the labels a message that snuffing out cheaper competition will not be tolerated. Not only that, they also fined the executives in charge as they were held responsible for their companies despicable actions. Specifically, section 47 of the Trade Practices Act 1974 speaks to exclusive dealing when responding to the parallel importation of music by small business. The court increased the penalties payable by Warner, Universal and company senior executives to a total of more than 2 million. Read on.
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"Consumers can benefit also from the lower prices and greater choice". "Justices Wilcox, French and Gyles further clarified the law regarding misuse of market power by following the High Court judgment in the recent Boral case", Mr Samuel said. "Both Warner and Universal were unsuccessful in appealing the original decision of Justice Hill that they had contravened the exclusive dealing provision of the Act". In their judgment, the Full Court stated: "Although short-lived the purpose of that conduct was to snuff out the emergence of a form of competition opened up in the interests of consumers by the amendments to the Copyright Act. On any view these factors would indicate the need for a substantial penalty to be assessed bearing in mind the maximum of 10 million dollars". They also said: "As we have said, the contravening conduct was plainly and deliberately anti-competitive in its intent". At trial, Justice Hill held that Warner and Universal had breached the Act by threatening to refuse to supply Australian retailers who stocked parallel-imported CDs, and later refusing to supply retailers who stocked such imports. Those findings made by Justice Hill preventing Warner and Universal from refusing, or threatening to refuse supply to retailers for the reason that they source or propose to source non-infringing copies of music within their catalogue from an alternate source, were upheld by the Full Federal Court. |
Justice is served. What a day for the consumer
and the market place. Here is the breakdown of the court case: The ACCC, while
successful in establishing a breach of the Trade Practices Act at trial,
appealed the pecuniary penalty awarded by Justice Hill (totalling more than 1
million dollars) as being inadequate given the circumstances of the case. The
Full Court held that penalties need to be set to adequately reflect the need for
deterrence and ordered the following penalties: - Warner and Universal '“ 1
million dollars each.
- Paul Dickson (formerly PolyGram Group Managing Director of Music Operations) '“ decreased from 50,000 to 45,000 dollars
- Craig Handley (formerly PolyGram General Manager of Sales) - 45,000 dollars
- Gary Smerdon (Director of Warner, formerly Finance and Business Affairs Director) - 45,000 dollars
- Greg Maksimovic (Warner NSW State Manager) - 45,000 dollars.
Mr. Samuel welcomed the decision of the court to substantially increase the penalties imposed on Warner and Universal. "Penalties of 1 million each for Warner and Universal and 45,000 each for the senior executives of those companies show that the court, when faced with serious breaches of trade practices law, will impose penalties to match". Readers don't you agree?
Source: mi2n.com
