NEWS
CD Wow has hit out at music industry body the BPI, which is pushing for a case against the retailer over parallel importing - where CDs licensed for one region are sold in another.
The CD seller accused the music industry of paranoia, saying in a statement that in the ongoing court battle between the two, the BPI blamed CD Wow and merchants like it for price erosion in the market.
According to CD Wow, Simon Baggs of the Wiggin legal firm representing the BPI said in court yesterday: "One of the great causes of concern to the UK record industry at the present time is that prices for CDs and DVDs are being pushed down by the ability of consumers to obtain the same CD and DVD, in terms of the recordings on it, from companies such as CD Wow and that is a very significant concern."
The spat between CD Wow and the BPI reignited over the issues of parallel or 'grey importing' - in this case, where CDs destined for the Asian market were being sold to consumers in Ireland and the UK.
The BPI has found 33 instances of CDs not unauthorised for the UK making it into this country. CD Wow said the 33 in question involved 12 sales to the UK and were the result of human error and "regrettable but unintentional breach of copyright", as the e-tailer ships hundreds of thousands of CDs each day.
The BPI did not immediately respond to request for comment.
The initial parallel importing case between the two was settled out of court in 2004.
Comments
There are 4 comments. Join the discussion
1. anonymous
Prices of CDs and DVDs should come down - you can buy a DVD player from Asda for £9 but the DVD to play on it costs you up to £15 - where's the logic in that?
2. Simon
he present time is that prices for CDs and DVDs are being pushed down ..."
Which is as close as you'll get to an admission that a key bit of this spat is about retail price maintenance - a practice that has been explicitely illegal in this country for many years.
3. Matt H
When the Record Industry moan about us buying their products legally from retailers, it's ever likely the number of downloads et. al. is on the increase! You can't win as a consumer!
You either get stung by paying over the odds for a CD/DVD, or you get thrown into legal action because you downloaded it. This does nothing more than show the Record Industry & Film Industry for what they really are..... money grabbing fat cats who are out of touch with the world!
4. Radical Meldrew
Whilst I might grudgingly accept higher UK prices for CDs or DVDs that are UK manufactured, UK prices are far too high considering that many production facilities been relocated to wherever in the world is cheapest. As well as exploiting the poorer nations, UK consumers suffer because the same cheaply manufactured items can only be purchased from selected outlets after they have been 'officially' imported and disproportionately hiked up in price. Whatever happened to the idea of Free Trade and consumer protection?