Right, I dont know the ins and outs of what actually happened but I'd safely bet a lot of cash on the fact that Nintendo were guilty of price fixing in the EU from as far back as I can remember up until 2002.

However, what I want to know is, when companies like this get fined these gigantic sums for price fixing, where does the cash go?

Surely the actual victims of the price fixing should be compensated?!

I dunno, its just a suggestion......

You have a point (@1)

I find it funny that a company like Nintendo get pulled over the coals for fixing prices but you can walk into game at xmas and the only Wii's they have left are "special" bundles starting at £280 ... if you want some easy money bet your friends that this xmas GAME sell out of all their normal bundles and solus Wii's by about SEPTEMBER and its "special" bundles from then on.

tbh though I'm not that suprised by nintendo because as gredy as GAME can be, its nintendo who can't seem to make the Wii's quick enough . . . APPARENTLY

Not only should Nintendo be able to price fix - it makes great business sense to do it. Last time I checked the EU was an open capitalist market where the laws of supply and demand should be able to work independantly of 'regulation'.

It works that way for petrol, prices are driven up by supply and demand (and not price fixing.. ;) so why cant it be the same for games...

it is illegal for any supplier to force a distributor to sell an item for a certain price. distributors are free to sell for whatever price they wish, high or low. Suppliers can recommend a price by this recommendation must be flimsy and not enforced. Now if a company, like Nintendo was to go further than this and hatch a plan to drive prices skyward, then that is dreadful - but it takes 2 to tango. Who were they speaking to in order to get the price of games up? Sega? Sony? EA?

I dunno if any of you will remember or even care but weren't JJB and some other sports retailers fined for price fixing the price of replica football shirts?

I remember going into JJB and being able to get a shirt for £30 during the supposed period they were price fixing and round Xmas I went back in to buy another one and it was £40.

I don't really understand how Nintendo can be accused of price fixing really, the last over priced Nintendo product I can remember was the N64 with games being priced up to £65, but wasn't that because they were catridge based and cost more to manufacture.

It's not like DS & Wii consoles and games are over priced by Nintendo, even Gamecube games were pretty well priced.

I specifically remember certain N64 titles being £69.99 in some places around release, so i'm entitled to believe this - hell I even remember paying £49.99 for theme park on the snes.

What was I thinking...

It's simple. If Nintendo made a deal with distributors to sell a product at a certain price, so that the distributors would not create competition by lowering their price, that is price fixing.

supply and demand is different. if there are few items then the price will be high because demand is high (not enough stock for everyone that wants it).

if there are lots of the items and the shops and suppliers agree to sell at an artificially high price, that is illegal.

basically, what this means is that Nintendo led a cartel of retailers to NOT go into competition, to sell their hardware and software at an agree high price in order to maximise profit at the expense of customers like you and me.

Nintendo is guilty for the same crime in the United States. Unfortunately, our laws are much more lax than Europe where the government tend to take the acquisition seriouly. Unless we can find a class-action law firm, to take this case in the US will be impossible. Nintendo and most publishers has a MAP (Manufacturer Advertise Price)pricing with most retailer and if the retailer break those prices, they get penalize by getting reduction in "hot" product allocation or worse no allocation. At times, manufacturer has even threaten to stop selling for breaking the MAP. I hope the management for hardware and game publishers take the warning seriously because the case can be brought against them all in United States as well

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