Sony, Fuji, and Maxell fined $110M for videotape cartel

The EU just lashed Sony, Fuji, and Maxell with fines totaling €75 million ($110 million) on grounds of fixing the price of professional videotapes. The 3-way Japanese cartel controlling 85% of the professional videotape market was found guilty of artificially controlling prices on Betacam SP and Digital Betacam -- the two most popular professional videotape formats in use between 1999 and 2002. According to the EU commission, they "organized three successful rounds of price increases and endeavored to stabilize prices whenever an increase was not possible." Such naughty, naughty billionaires now reaping what they've sown.

[Xavier Gill @ Nov 20th 2007 8:56AM]

Thank god for the EU, this would never happen in America

[lintsniffer @ Nov 20th 2007 2:30PM]

thank god.
The day America does this is the day I move to Jamaica or something.

[E71 @ Nov 20th 2007 6:11PM]

Can we drop a nuke on the EU? I mean seriously, they're getting really cocky now.

[David @ Nov 21st 2007 3:07AM]

you want to drop 1 nuke on all of the European union? It's a fairly big place you know.. plus its doing things like stopping price fixing. I bet you couldn't even point it out on a map could you? Cretin.

[Gavin @ Nov 20th 2007 8:56AM]

This is exactly why I hope Blu Ray (Sony) will not win the HD format "war." Sony = high prices = cartel = bad for consumers...

[Bob P. @ Nov 20th 2007 10:25AM]

and MS doesn't do any of this?

I'm not a Sony fan, but this stuff just happens in a lot of companies.

Besides if HD-DVD had been designed as something more than just a medium to hold HD movies I'd be more willing to support them, but I need something that can store data too and 30GB isn't enough. Especially when you can only find 15GB disks right now and I've still never seen a HD-DVD burner in the wild.

[Telanis @ Nov 20th 2007 11:26AM]

MS has a player in their video game console. They don't make or sell movies. Currently they don't even put games on HD-DVD discs. So they have NOTHING to do with this topic. You can't form a cartel and alter the prices of media that you're not involved with at all.

[Bob P. @ Nov 20th 2007 11:49AM]

The synonym for cartel is a monopoly and MS just got fined for monopolistic practices by the EU. I didn't say MS was trying to cartel HD-Disks, you're just assuming that.

I'm just pointing out that none of these companies are perfect. So I don't see why these HD-DVD fanboys are jumping over here to complain about Sony's monopolistic practices when they've got a culprit on their side too. I mean the second post was about Blu-ray and the article is about video tapes. So I don't see the relevance of your argument. If you can ignore MS practices when it doesn't apply to the format was how can you do the opposite for Sony.

It's the price of economic freedom that your going to have stuff like this happen. You can't stop it, you can only hope to keep it in check.

[KC @ Nov 20th 2007 3:52PM]

@Gavin, You do know that Blu-ray isn't totally owned by Sony, but founded by 9 companies: Matsushita, Pioneer, Philips, Thomson, LG Electronics, Hitachi, Sharp, Samsung and Sony. All together, there are 18 members in the board.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blu-ray_Disc_Association

Besides, this fine was for a cartel for controlling 85% of the professional videotape market. It has nothing to do with consumer electronics. If it were not for Sony's PS2, we would not have DVDs at such low prices. Think about that instead.

[dataminer49er @ Nov 20th 2007 9:08AM]

What's a videotape?

;)

[Jesse S @ Nov 20th 2007 1:25PM]

If you use video professionally, you either shoot digital (too much money for sub-par picture), film (big-budget movies and whatnot), or videotape like this, because it's lossless.

[tonybullard @ Nov 20th 2007 2:38PM]

You may not deal with them much anymore...but everything you watch on disc sure does.

[Eric @ Nov 20th 2007 2:57PM]

It's not lossless, it has a slight compression ~2.5:1 true lossless videotape is analog (ie: beta sp)

[Bob @ Nov 20th 2007 9:14AM]

cheap tactics ..........serves them right ....$110M was cheap .....I say double it

[Archaix @ Nov 20th 2007 9:22AM]

Exactly, and this is the company that all the Blu-Ray fanboys want controlling their high def movies for the next 10 years. I know "But, it has uncompressed sound"....and a 30% markup.

[Andir3.0 @ Nov 20th 2007 11:06AM]

You know that Blu-Ray movies are cheaper than HDDVD, right?

[Telanis @ Nov 20th 2007 11:28AM]

That's because people are buying Blu-Ray in greater numbers. Supply and demand, genius.

[monkfishbandana @ Nov 21st 2007 12:00PM]

@ Telanis:

Supply and demand? Oh no, someone's buying Blu-Ray and as a result they have dropped the price! Boo hoo! Winge winge!

They're still cheaper, genius.

[g_white @ Nov 20th 2007 9:23AM]

Where does the fine money go? The EU Treasury?

[Bombaclaat @ Nov 20th 2007 10:04AM]

iphones

[mattclarkie @ Nov 20th 2007 9:32AM]

Your just being ridiculous. I live in the EU, and I want them to stop giving companies fines for being companies. First MS now Sony and Fuji. The EU is keeping prices high with all these fines.

[Alan Partridge @ Nov 20th 2007 10:00AM]

Read the article again, its Sony, Fuji, and Maxell who a re keeping prices high.

[Andir3.0 @ Nov 20th 2007 11:07AM]

You forgot Microsoft Alan.

[arthur barnhouse @ Nov 20th 2007 11:29AM]

Monopolies, cartels, and trusts do not help the economy function efficiently. That's the problem.

[mattclarkie @ Nov 20th 2007 12:48PM]

I don't care about Maxell. But as I am against the EU fines, I would prefer it if they weren't fined.

[Mike @ Nov 20th 2007 10:04AM]

Don't kid yourself mattclarkie... be thankful your representatives are still looking out for you to any degree at all.
Here in the good 'ol USA it has been the corporate bully boys running the show for a while now.
It's like nobody in office here ever got better than a C in a history class.
Companies can own unlimited media, creating information cartels.
'Cause we all know that won't lead to trouble or misuse of power...
They also seem free to run amok fixing or gouging prices with nothing said or done.
I'm still waiting for the promised decrease in prices of music CDs once production ramped up and they became the mainstay format over cassettes. I heard that circa 1986.
You are dreaming if you think such wild west free market economics leads to lower prices.
It does in all the text books because all the textbooks are talking about a free market system with ease of entry and competition.
But most large companies aren't actually cookie stores, so that's quite often not what we actually have today.
If it wasn't for the "sell 'em cheap as chips" attitude of many no name companies coming in out of the far east we'd still be paying $300 for DVD players in the US.
The big boys are smart enough to all too often not really compete... but just happily split a very nice pie composed of artificially price inflated/fixed pieces.
And don't even get me started on oil companies....
I've gone from being a laisse-fare thinker to not thinking Hugo Chavez is so completely off is rocker down there in Venezuela.

No.. I have to agree above. The only problem is the fine was way too low.
- Mike

[CosterMonger @ Nov 20th 2007 10:51AM]

now if only CDs and DVDs got that same special treatment.
____
we should all be reading books anyways; all this entertainment just turns us into sheep.

[jaapV @ Nov 20th 2007 12:11PM]

It's just entertainment, no in sheep changin' going on.

And books don't turn you in to sheep?
ugh, ugh, bible, koran, torah, ugh, cough, ugh
:)

[Jesse S @ Nov 20th 2007 1:27PM]

Jazz, Avant-Guard, Classical, and movies like Pan's Labrythn are turning us into sheep?

I think you mean bad music and movies, like everything coming out of Hollywood since the 70's and rap and pop.

[DS @ Nov 20th 2007 3:35PM]

i'm sure you mean pop rap. of course you do.

[CosterMonger @ Nov 21st 2007 7:15PM]

yes, yes, and yes

anything thought provoking is great

stuff that tells you to think a specific way is crap; to conform to the status quo {conforming to the stereo type or the idea that money=intelligence}

repeating does not create truth

[gshb @ Nov 20th 2007 12:46PM]

people are so naive...sony still wins if HD-DVD "wins" the format wars. toshiba and sony have a technology alliance.

[mattclarkie @ Nov 20th 2007 12:52PM]

The thing is Europe, and in particular the UK, have some of the highest prices in the world, things in the US are a fraction of the price, despite the currency being weaker. So if the EU is keeping down the prices, God Help Us All.

[Quad @ Nov 20th 2007 1:15PM]

I don't think most of the users here really get it. They are talking about professional tape stock, used in commercial endeavors. Yes it is good to have a competitive market, But this really isn't such an outrage. Tape and film stock are among the least expensive elements of a production, they are bought by the case load, and considered quite a consumable. Also earlier I mentioned commercial, indicating that the money spent on a production will be made back, and hopefully then some. One final thought before people go flying off the handle about Blu ray and other matters in the disc format war, there is a large difference between consumer and professional markets. One of the largest differences being that professional items are purchased almost solely on need.

[IndepMusic.com @ Nov 20th 2007 1:33PM]

thats IT, im creating my own media. so there.

http://www.indepmusic.com

[Assimilate @ Nov 20th 2007 5:45PM]

What happened to the days of T.R.