[ Thanks to tld3227
for this link. ]
“Twenty-eight states filed suit against the world’s five largest
record labels on Tuesday, accusing them of fixing prices of compact
discs and demanding “hundreds of millions of dollars” in
damages.”
“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 CD’s below a
minimum price determined by the labels.“
“New York State Attorney General Eliot Spitzer said in a
statement, “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 CD’s…”
“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.”