EC wallops Sony, Fuji and Maxell

THE European Commission has fined Sony, Fuji and Maxell $109.8 million for price fixing.

According to Reuters the three between 1999 and 2002 managed to raise and control prices by holding secret meetings between them.

Sony was fined 30 per cent more for trying to cover up the investigation while Fujifilm had its fine reduced to 13.2 million euros for co-operating with investigators. Hitachi Maxell also co-operated and was only hit with a 14.4 million euros fine.

European Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes said that the fines are a warning to outfits who thought cartels were a good way of doing business.

The investigation started in May 2002 when Inspector Knacker of the Euro Yard raided the offices of the three companies. He found shedloads of evidence about what the three were up too.

As coppers were swarming around the building. A Sony bigwig refused to answer questions. Another employee rushed to dump a ton of documents into the company shredder while Inspector Knacker was pounding on the door.

In fact Sony only said "Oh you mean THAT Cartel" after it received a formal charge sheet from the Commission.

The Cartel, which controlled 85 per cent of the market, covered two of the most popular professional videotape formats of the day, Betacam SP and Digital Betacam.

After more than 11 meetings the Cartel managed to organise three price increases and tried to stabilise prices whenever an increase was impossible, the Commission said.

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