Roland and Korg Fined £5.5m over UK Price Fixing

Thought this was interesting. I thought this was common practice?

via The Guardian

"The keyboard and electric drum kit makers Roland and Korg have been fined a combined total of £5.5m, as part of the UK competition watchdog’s crackdown on price fixing across the musical instrument industry.

The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) said the companies had breached competition rules by restricting online discounting of their musical instruments. The practice, known as “resale price maintenance”, forced retailers to sell instruments at or above a minimum price.

The watchdog said Roland restricted pricing of its electronic drum kits and accessories between January 2011 and April 2018, while Korg did the same for its hi-tech music equipment and synthesisers between June 2015 and April 2018.

Roland was fined just over £4m and Korg £1.5m..."

See the full article at The Guardian here.