spacegrass, jab1981, Sgams, d day, Mr. Belvedere and TheTarbaby used our newssubmit to tell us that the five largest music companies have to pay a very big fine to settle a CD price-fixing case. During 5 years they kept prices of CDs too high by signing contracts with resellers. Of course they didn't admit they were wrong, what did you expect?
The five record labels '” Vivendi Universal's Universal Music Group, Sony's Sony Music, Bertelsmann's BMG Music Group, Warner Music Group, a division of AOL Time Warner, and EMI Group '” and the three retailers, Musicland Stores, Trans World Entertainment and Tower Records, agreed to stop using MAP policies as part of the settlement.
The companies, which did not admit any wrongdoing, will pay $67.4 million in cash to compensate consumers who overpaid for CDs between 1995 and 2000. The companies also agreed to distribute $75.7 million worth of CDs to public entities and nonprofit organizations throughout the country.
Beware if you illegally download music, for you will burn in hell. That is what the music companies keep telling us. But keeping prices artificially high isn't a crime? Read the entire article here.
Source: Reuters
