The European Commission today finedJapan's Nintendo €149 million fortrying to rig distribution of its computer consoles and games inEurope during the 1990s.
Nintendo and seven European distributors were fined a total of€167.8 million, the fifth-largest ever imposed by the EuropeanUnion's executive arm for cartel practices.
Nintendo accepted it had been wrong but vowed to appeal at theLuxembourg-based European Court of First Instance over the"surprising" level of the fine.
"Nintendo accepts the finding that, up to 1998, its distributionpractices did not comply with EU competition rules," Nintendo Europesaid in a statement.
"Nintendo has rectified the relevant aspects of its distributionin Europe and has instigated a thorough and far-reaching complianceprogramme that enables the free flow of product across Europe," itsaid.
The Japanese company prevented "parallel imports" of consolesand games from cheaper markets such as Britain from entering otherEU countries, the European Commission concluded after a seven-yearinvestigation.
The commission found that prices for Nintendo consoles and gameswere up to 65 per cent cheaper in Britain - Europe's biggestcomputer game market - than in Germany or the Netherlands.
AFP