(TV) Fwd: [COLTRANE-L] We're rich!

[robin dunn <rdunnrn@yahoo.com>]

from the coltrane list.  does this mean we can all
take vacations?

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Date: Thu, 03 Oct 2002 15:52:03 -0400
From: Christopher Paul Fiorello McLaughlin DeVito <ChrisDeVito@AOL.COM>
Subject: [COLTRANE-L] We're rich!
Sender: Discussion of the life and works of John Coltrane
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Settlement Is Music To CD Buyers' Ears


NEW YORK, Oct. 1, 2002


(CBS) The five top U.S. distributors of compact discs and three large music

retailers have agreed to pay $143 million in cash and CDs to settle charges

they cheated consumers by fixing prices, authorities announced Monday.


The settlement brings to a close accusations made by attorneys general of 41

states and commonwealths who accused record companies of conspiring with

music distributors to boost the prices of CDs between 1995 and 2000.


The companies broke state and federal antitrust laws, costing consumers

millions of dollars, the attorneys general had charged in a lawsuit filed in

August 2000 in U.S. District Court in Manhattan and later moved to Portland,

Maine. A judge there must approve the deal.


The settlement calls for $67.3 million cash to be distributed to the

settling states to compensate consumers who overpaid for CDs during the

period and to pay settlement administration costs and attorneys' fees.


Consumers who bought CDs between 1995 and 2000 can file claims for part of

the fund, prosecutors said. Public announcements will be made later to

inform consumers how to participate in the payout.


The settlement also requires 5.5 million CDs valued at $75.7 million to be

distributed to public entities and nonprofit organizations in each state to

promote music programs.


The settlement will be distributed according to state population, although

attorneys in the case are still working to determine a formula. New York,

for example, will receive about 6 percent of the settlement.


Consumers in all 50 states will benefit under terms of the settlement, New

York State Attorney General Eliot Spitzer said in a statement.


"This is a landmark settlement to address years of illegal price-fixing,"

Spitzer said. "Our agreement will provide consumers with substantial refunds

and result in the distribution of a wide variety of recordings for use in

our schools and communities."


The music distributors participating in the deal are Bertelsmann Music

Group, EMI Music Distribution, Warner-Elektra-Atlantic Corporation, Sony

Music Entertainment and Universal Music Group.


"We deny any wrongdoing," Warner-Elektra-Atlantic said in a statement. "We

have made a business decision to settle these matters and avoid continuing

with expensive and protracted litigation. The settlement made sense to us

from a business perspective, and enables WEA to put this matter behind us."


Nathaniel Brown, a Bertelsmann Music Group spokesman, noted that the

settlement does not state that there was any wrongdoing. He said the company

maintains that its pricing practices were "appropriate and lawful"

throughout the period.


Sony declined to comment. EMI and Universal did not immediately return

telephone messages for comment.


Also included in the deal were three national retail chains: Trans World

Entertainment, Tower Records, and Musicland Stores, a division of Best Buy

Co. Inc.


Dawn Bryant, a spokeswoman for Musicland, said the company had no immediate

comment. Trans World Entertainment spokesman John Sullivan said, "We were

wrongly accused and nobody admitted any wrongdoing." Tower Records did not

immediately return messages.


The lawsuit alleged that the companies - upset with low prices charged by

some stores - conspired with retailers to set music prices at a minimum

level, effectively raising the retail prices consumers paid for CDs.


The conspiracy caused the elimination of price discounting and significantly

reduced price competition among music retailers, Spitzer said.

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