Major US Music Labels Charged with Price-fixing

Posted by Nic Goodman on 10 March 2006 - 09:09 [EST]

According to a report by Red Herring, several major US music labels have been slammed with a class action lawsuit filled by San Diego lawyer William Lerach. The labels accused with price-fixing include Sony BMG, Universal, Warner, Bertelsmann and EMI. The suit accuses these labels of "deliberately attempting to prevent the development of legitimate online music service."

The suit later accuses the labels to "conspired to fix and maintain" prices once legitimate service appeared on the market, such as iTunes and Rhapsody among others. This class action comes at a curious time as both the US Department of Justice and the New York Attorney's office launch separate independent investigations into conspiring between labels involving download prices.

Source: neowin.net