--- From: Vance Kochenderfer <vkochendat_private> Subject: Does DVD region coding violate EU laws? To: declanat_private Date: Wed, 30 Oct 2002 12:36:20 -0700 (MST) This may be of interest to the Politech list. The BBC reports that the EU has fined Nintendo for price discrimination in different countries. The next logical question is whether DVD region coding also runs afoul of the same law. It would seem to if the Baltic republics gain admission to the EU, since they are in a different DVD region than the rest of Europe. Later, Vance http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/2375967.stm Nintendo fined for price fixing Nintendo has been fined 149m euros (UKP92.1m) by the European Commission for trying to rig the computer game market. [...] The fines follow a two-year probe by the commission into claims that Nintendo prevented distributors from selling goods from low-cost countries in states where prices were higher. Prices of Nintendo products were up to 65% higher in Germany or the Netherlands than in Britain. "Every year, millions of European families spend large amounts of money on video games," Competition Commissioner Mario Monti said. "They have the right to buy the games and consoles at the lowest price the market can possibly offer. [...] ------------------------------------------------------------------------- POLITECH -- Declan McCullagh's politics and technology mailing list You may redistribute this message freely if you include this notice. To subscribe to Politech: http://www.politechbot.com/info/subscribe.html This message is archived at http://www.politechbot.com/ Declan McCullagh's photographs are at http://www.mccullagh.org/ ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Like Politech? Make a donation here: http://www.politechbot.com/donate/ Recent CNET News.com articles: http://news.search.com/search?q=declan -------------------------------------------------------------------------
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b30 : Sat Nov 02 2002 - 13:25:24 PST