For the past while the music industry's of both Ireland (Irish Music Rights Organisation) and the UK (British Phonographic Industry) have accused CD-Wow of violating local copyright law by importing CDs from outside Europe. They recently filed a lawsuit and CD-Wow have settled out of court by agreeing to buy CDs within Europe Only. As a result, they have been forced to raise their online prices by UK£2 and a similar Irish price increase to cover the cost of buying more expensive European CDs.
Up until now, CD-Wow has imported most of the music from Hong-Kong which allowed them to sell Top 75 album chart CDs for only UK£8.99. The UK£2 surcharge will take effect from Sunday. As expected, the BPI is delighted with the settlement since CD-Wow was not going to take the risk of trying to fight their case in court. The BPI are now investigating Amazon to determine if they are also importing CDs from outside the EU. CD-Wow have tried their best to offer consumers the cheapest legitimate CDs, but apparently the music industry will find any excuse to just to fight off competition. Quakester2000 and dfua both submitted the following news from the BBC via our news submit:
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CD-Wow! had been accused of violating UK copyright law by importing cheaper CDs from outside Europe to the UK. The retailer says it will now raise UK CD prices by £2 as it will have to buy more expensive CDs from Europe. "I am delighted that we have been able to resolve this case on agreed terms," BPI chairman Peter Jamieson said. The BPI and CD-Wow! released a joint statement after the settlement was reached. 'European only' "The record industry claimed that CD Wow! was obtaining sound recordings from outside Europe and selling them to UK and Irish consumers," the statement said. "As a result of the settlement CD Wow! has agreed that it will not sell CDs that have been first placed on the market outside Europe to UK and Irish customers. "It will only sell CDs that have first been placed on the European market to UK and Irish customers. All other details of the settlement are confidential," it said. CD-Wow! currently charges £8.99 for a CD in the Top 75 albums chart, but will now have to add a £2 surcharge to any CDs delivered in the UK or Ireland from this Sunday, director Philip Robinson told BBC News Online. The BPI would not comment on the impact the settlement would have on UK consumers who had been using CD-Wow!. He said the company had decided to settle because they were "a small business" and it would be financially "imprudent" for them to try and take the case to the Court of Appeal or the European Court. Mr Robinson also said all of CD-Wow!'s products had been brought from record companies around the world, and did not include pirated material. "We got our CDs from wherever we could, but they were always record company product and legitimate. There was never any question of piracy," he said. CD-Wow! has more than one million users a month worldwide. The BPI is also investigating online retailer Amazon to see whether it is importing CDs from outside Europe. "If we find a net retailer is importing music from outside Europe, then they are infringing copyright law," a spokesman said. |
I have purchased many CDs from CD-Wow and never had a problem with them. They delivered with in a week despite shipping from Hong-Kong. We only received one damaged disc, but got it exchanged without any problems. It is a real pity that both the BPI and IMRO decided to fight off the only shop that actually tried offering the consumers competitive prices.
dfua wrote: Hopefully play.com or Amazon will have the financial backing to resist the BPI or this could be bad news for CD prices in the UK in general. I'm already fed up and my disposable income is definately going elsewhere from now on.
Source: BBC Entertainment News
