Nintendo fighting 149.1 million euro EU fine

"The penalty was unfair, illegal, even shocking"

NEWS: 21 May 2008 10:35 GMT by Katie Scott

Nintendo is refusing to pay a 149.1 million euro fine slapped on its for allegedly price fixing.

European Union regulators fined the gaming giant in 2002 following on from allegations that Nintendo, and seven distributors had colluded to raise hardware and software prices between 1991 and 1998.

They were found guilty as charged and one of the biggest ever fines in EU competitions history levied against Nintendo.

But now the games console maker is fighting the fine.

"The penalty was unfair, illegal, even shocking", Ian Forrester, representing Nintendo, told the European Court of First Instance in Luxembourg.

He added: "This remains one of the biggest single fines in EU competition law".

But European authorities insist the fine was fair.

"The fine was not of a capricious nature, or based on wild estimates", said Xavier Lewis, a commission lawyer.

"This fine was for an infringement that was considered very serious."

>> Via - Gamesindustry.biz

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Have Your Say

Screw Nintendo and all the others! These artificial high prices are just encouraging more piracy.

And what happens with the fine if Nintendo decides to pay? It isn't going to be distributed amongst the consumers who bought the products...

The EU should do something more, force the manufacturers and distributors to set realistic prices. DVDs, CDs, Games and all those are artificially kept high and the creators/artists see only a tiny fraction of the sales prices. It's not fair to the artist or consumers!
Dutchie, France
Yeah, go EU, suing Nintendo is really doing you guys a lot of good for the consumers that suffered. Huzzah, you take away a good chunk of their money along with the stupid patent trolls suing Nintendo also. Everyone is after these big companies now a days. Prices are still high in Europe and always have been. I just buy games in America anyway seeing how my system is NTSC (I hate the fact that PAL and NTSC are in existence a universal system is so much simpler). But seriously, targeting the Nintendo company for wanting to raise prices for profit is dumb. It is their product they can do what they want with it. You aren't saving the consumers rights by suing Nintendo (they don't even do this anymore the prices are very affordable and fair now) it's not like the money will refund the ones that spent their money. It is just dumb, and of course Nintendo will lose seeing how it is going up against the largest economic force in the world right now. Screw the EU... it is dumb that they are suing someone for high prices... what a dick move.
Devin, Serbia