States Sue Record Labels Over Price Fixing
High-level music industry manipulation was xposed and criticized Tuesday as the State Attorneys General of 30 states and U.S. commonwealths filed a massive federal lawsuit claiming that the five major record companies and several large music retailers had conspired to overcharge consumers for CDs, costing consumers hundreds of millions of dollars. The suit, filed in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, centers on a policy called "minimum advertised pricing" (MAP), under which the labels subsidized advertising for retailers that agreed not to sell CDs below a minimum price determined by the labels. The suit alleges that the MAP policy increased CD prices in violation of state and federal antitrust law, kept CD prices artificially high, and penalized retailers who did not participate.
"This illegal action...has not been music to the ears of the public. Because of these conspiracies, tens of millions of consumers paid inflated prices to buy CDs...,"
said New York State Attorney General Eliot Spitzer, on behalf of the State Attorneys General.
Do we need any more proof of the cultural monopoly that is 4ced on the music-buying public? Not only does this industry dictate what musical "product" will dominate r culture, they want 2 tell us what price we will pay 4 it!
If this "illegal action" was taken by the major labels and retailers regarding the price of CDs, what prevents them from taking the same type of actions regarding what we r allowed 2 listen 2, what trends will dominate, and on and on? This is the kind of monopoly that is crushing the music-lover out of the music industry. With greed and profit making these types of deals, r culture suffers and we r literally robbed in the process.
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