UPDATE: EU Court Reduces Nintendo Antitrust Fine
30 4월 2009 - 6:54PM
Dow Jones News
A European court Thursday lowered a fine levied against Japanese
video game maker Nintendo (7974.OK) for preventing parallel trade
in its computer gaming consoles and game cartridges.
The fine, imposed by the European Commission in 2002, was
reduced to EUR119 million from EUR149 million.
The total fine for Nintendo and its distributors had been
EUR167.8 million, but only three companies, Nintendo, Belgium's
CD-Contact Data GmbH and Japan's Itochu Corp. (8001.TO), appealed
their fines.
Parallel trade is the practice of trading goods from lower-cost
countries into companies which already have a higher-priced supply
from the manufacturer.
The commission, Europe's antitrust agency, fined Nintendo, along
with seven of its European distributors for anticompetitive
behaviour, after it found they had taken part in an agreement aimed
at keeping lower-priced U.K. products from being sold elsewhere in
the European Union between 1991 and 1998.
In 1996, for example, Nintendo products were up to 65% cheaper
in the U.K. than they were in the Netherlands or Germany.
The seven distributors are U.K.-based John Menzies PLC
(MNZS.LN); Portugal's Concentra - Produtos para crianças S.A.
(Portugal); Italy's Linea GIG. SpA.; Sweden's Bergsala AB; Itochu
Hellas, the Greek subsidiary of the Itochu, Greece's Nortec A.E.
and CD-Contact.
Nintendo faced the biggest fine, for its role in setting up and
keeping the arrangement going, even when it knew the commission was
investigating.
The Court of First Instance ruled that Nintendo should gain the
same level of reduction as John Menzies did for cooperating as it
produced documents at the same stage of the procedure.
The CFI also reduced CD-Contact's fine to EUR500,000 from EUR1
million but upheld the Itochu's fine at EUR4.5 million.
-By Mike Gordon, Dow Jones Newswires; +352 691 180 766;
mgordon.dowjones@gmail.com