FTC Warns Sony Computer Entertainment Over Price-fixing
TOKYO, Jan. 20 (Kyodo) -- The Fair Trade Commission (FTC) on Tuesday
warned Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. about price-fixing of its
PlayStation video game software and urged it to stop the practice
which it said violates fair trade rules. The nation's fair trade
watchdog takes issue with the company's requirements that retailers
sell PlayStation software at suggested retail prices, refrain from
selling used video game software and from distributing PlayStation
software to other retailers.
The FTC said Sony Computer Entertainment imposed these requirements so
as to keep prices of its video game software from falling when it
signed retail contracts with retailers since June 1994. It also said
the company has ordered retailers to sell its new video game software
at suggested retail prices within two months after its release since
April 1996, when an increase in video game software products left some
products unsold.
Sony Computer Entertainment, a unit of consumer electronics giant Sony
Corp., canceled contracts with retailers when they failed to stick to
these requirements, the FTC said. A spokesman for Sony Computer
Entertainment said the company has not committed any wrongdoing. "We
are confident that there have been no illegalities and it is
regrettable that our marketing policy is not understood," the
spokesman said.
From:  Silicon Times Report / January 23, 1998 / No.1403
... The original Marquess of Queensbury rules for modern boxing stipulated no 
fighter could put springs in his shoes. -L.M. Boyd
--- JetMail 0.99beta22
---------------