Libraries will soon begin receiving their share of the proceeds from the settlement of a class-action lawsuit over price-fixing by the nation’s five major record labels and three largest music retailers.
In the settlement, approved last June, the companies agreed to give state organizations some 5.5-million CDs worth $75.7 million to distribute to schools, libraries, and other nonprofit groups. According to a website devoted to the settlement, the number of discs distributed to each state is proportional to its percentage of the overall national population: Utah’s attorney general announced that 59 public and university libraries in the state would get 43,762 CDs; the Associated Press reported February 19 that Massachusetts’ 488 public libraries would receive 124,000 CDs; and California would get some 665,000 CDs for its public schools, colleges, and libraries, KNBC-TV in Los Angeles said February 19.
The companies also agreed to refund $67.4 million to consumers who purchased CDs from 1995 to 2000 and eliminate policies that set minimum prices for advertised CDs.
The lawsuit, filed by 43 states in August 2000, claimed the music industry and retailers unlawfully colluded to keep the price of CDs artificially high through what are called “minimum advertised pricing” policies under which the major labels would subsidize advertising if retailers agreed not to sell CDs below a certain price.
Posted February 20, 2004.