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CDWow and BPI settle landmark case
The row between online retailer CDWow and the UK record industry over the sale of cheap CDs on the web has been settled just two weeks before the landmark case was due to go to court.
The British Phonographic Industry and CDWow today announced they had reached a settlement over claims that the online retailer was breaking the law by selling CDs from the Far East.
The reason that CDWow was able to offer chart CDs for £8.99 and under was because it bought them at lower wholesale prices in the Far East and sold them directly to consumers. The BPI argued that CDWow was breaking the law by importing CDs from outside the European Economic Area and selling them at cheaper prices than UK retailers without the consent of copyright owners. However, CDWow in turn argued that the company agreed deals with the record labels concerned overseas and didn't actually import the CDs, merely posting them individually to the UK from the Far East. Under the settlement announced today, CDWow has backed down and agreed not to sell CDs that have first been placed on the market outside Europe to UK and Irish customers.
The BPI chairman, Peter Jamieson, announced, "I am delighted that we have been able to resolve this case on agreed terms without the need for a trial.". The BPI is also looking at taking similar action against Play.com and US web retail giant Amazon.com.
The settlement is likely to hit CDWow's sales because it will now add a £2 surcharge to buyers from the UK and Ireland, explaining that the extra cost is as a result of the BPI's action. But while the major record labels have won their battle against CDWow, many industry insiders believe that they will come under increasing pressure to reduce the retail price of CDs in the UK in any case. As legal download services offering albums from £6.40 become more popular, high street retailers are likely to put more pressure on the labels to slash prices.
Already, Universal has agreed to cut the price of CDs by 25% in the US, and the UK Consumers Association is believed to be investigating the possibility of taking the UK's major labels to court over the price difference between CDs in Europe and the rest of the world.
Even Amazon.com could be drawn into the row because it sells CDs to UK customers that are not available in this country, undercutting traditional high street retailers. The BPI could argue that they are acting without the consent of UK record companies
The row between online retailer CDWow and the UK record industry over the sale of cheap CDs on the web has been settled just two weeks before the landmark case was due to go to court.
The British Phonographic Industry and CDWow today announced they had reached a settlement over claims that the online retailer was breaking the law by selling CDs from the Far East.
The reason that CDWow was able to offer chart CDs for £8.99 and under was because it bought them at lower wholesale prices in the Far East and sold them directly to consumers. The BPI argued that CDWow was breaking the law by importing CDs from outside the European Economic Area and selling them at cheaper prices than UK retailers without the consent of copyright owners. However, CDWow in turn argued that the company agreed deals with the record labels concerned overseas and didn't actually import the CDs, merely posting them individually to the UK from the Far East. Under the settlement announced today, CDWow has backed down and agreed not to sell CDs that have first been placed on the market outside Europe to UK and Irish customers.
The BPI chairman, Peter Jamieson, announced, "I am delighted that we have been able to resolve this case on agreed terms without the need for a trial.". The BPI is also looking at taking similar action against Play.com and US web retail giant Amazon.com.
The settlement is likely to hit CDWow's sales because it will now add a £2 surcharge to buyers from the UK and Ireland, explaining that the extra cost is as a result of the BPI's action. But while the major record labels have won their battle against CDWow, many industry insiders believe that they will come under increasing pressure to reduce the retail price of CDs in the UK in any case. As legal download services offering albums from £6.40 become more popular, high street retailers are likely to put more pressure on the labels to slash prices.
Already, Universal has agreed to cut the price of CDs by 25% in the US, and the UK Consumers Association is believed to be investigating the possibility of taking the UK's major labels to court over the price difference between CDs in Europe and the rest of the world.
Even Amazon.com could be drawn into the row because it sells CDs to UK customers that are not available in this country, undercutting traditional high street retailers. The BPI could argue that they are acting without the consent of UK record companies
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I had this e-mail from 101cd.com today...
-----
£8.95 CHART CDs WITH FREE DELIVERY - NO £2 INCREASE/SURCHAGE AT 101cd.com - http://www.101cd.com
You may have heard that as of Sunday prices for CDs on the web are being increased by £2 (by way of a surcharge) for UK consumers.
We wanted to let you know that this DOES NOT apply to ANY CD supplied by 101cd.com - including our huge range of charts CDs at £8.95 with free derlivery. Our pricing policy remains unaffected by the legal action taken by the British Phonographic Industry against other retailers.
We also wanted to let you know that we do not supply Asian pressed chart CDs. Any purchase you make from us is supporting UK e-commerce.
Right now we have some of the best deals ever offered to us by the UK record industry - these include top CD releases from EMI at £3.99 to £7.99 and many other fantastic offers from Universal and Sony Records.
For further details check out our web site - click on the following link: http://www.101cd.com/Home/index.asp?asptnr=1436
We would like to take this opportunity to thank you for your continued support.
All the best
The 101cd.com Team
http://www.101cd.com
-----
£8.95 CHART CDs WITH FREE DELIVERY - NO £2 INCREASE/SURCHAGE AT 101cd.com - http://www.101cd.com
You may have heard that as of Sunday prices for CDs on the web are being increased by £2 (by way of a surcharge) for UK consumers.
We wanted to let you know that this DOES NOT apply to ANY CD supplied by 101cd.com - including our huge range of charts CDs at £8.95 with free derlivery. Our pricing policy remains unaffected by the legal action taken by the British Phonographic Industry against other retailers.
We also wanted to let you know that we do not supply Asian pressed chart CDs. Any purchase you make from us is supporting UK e-commerce.
Right now we have some of the best deals ever offered to us by the UK record industry - these include top CD releases from EMI at £3.99 to £7.99 and many other fantastic offers from Universal and Sony Records.
For further details check out our web site - click on the following link: http://www.101cd.com/Home/index.asp?asptnr=1436
We would like to take this opportunity to thank you for your continued support.
All the best
The 101cd.com Team
http://www.101cd.com
This is gay (DISCLAIMER - I haven't read any of the replies in this thread).
If record companies want to cut piracy, why the hell are they forcing prices to go up?! It makes no sense at all. Surely CD sales must have boosted since the likes of CDWow and Play selling them at great prices?
I don't know, will they ever learn?
On another note, *they* should look at the state of play with Movie releases over here too. Movie piracy is on the up so fast, you can buy them freely at legit events such as computer fairs and the like.
If movies were released over here quicker maybe the public wouldn't go and buy pirate movies.
Take SWAT and Freaky Friday for example (bad movies I know), they were drying out at the US Box Office back in August! Why the big delay in getting them over here? No translation is needed, it makes no sense.
Other movies have been subjected to even bigger delays. It's out of order.
If record companies want to cut piracy, why the hell are they forcing prices to go up?! It makes no sense at all. Surely CD sales must have boosted since the likes of CDWow and Play selling them at great prices?
I don't know, will they ever learn?
On another note, *they* should look at the state of play with Movie releases over here too. Movie piracy is on the up so fast, you can buy them freely at legit events such as computer fairs and the like.
If movies were released over here quicker maybe the public wouldn't go and buy pirate movies.
Take SWAT and Freaky Friday for example (bad movies I know), they were drying out at the US Box Office back in August! Why the big delay in getting them over here? No translation is needed, it makes no sense.
Other movies have been subjected to even bigger delays. It's out of order.
To answer a query: yes, this could affect DVDs. This could affect absolutely anything imported.
The fact is there was nothing new at all about this "case". All that happened is the BPI took action against CD-Wow and Play, referring them to the case from last year between Tesco and Levis. Here Tesco were trying to sell imported Levis, under cutting the standard UK prices by sourcing them from the US, or East, or generally somewhere overseas.
As far as I remember it was argued right up to the European level; where it was decided levis were perfectly within their rights to stop Tesco from importing the jeans to sell at a low price.
Sound familiar?
As hundreds of thousands of UK residents are tempted back into buying the attractively priced CDs, the BPI have the inspired idea to artificially raise the price. They represent the UK record companies, who are narked that they are loosing sales as people can buy the exact same CD from the other side of the world for a foreign arm of their company. We're buy perfectly legit CDs, just taking advantage of lower prices elsewhere. Hell, the manufacturing industry does it all the time. There's international markets for any raw material, and we all know about the controversies of relocating factories to take advantage of lower wages.
So, the first group to settle are CD-Wow. The BPI claims the only people to be disadvantaged by this are CD-Wow... pardon? I'm going to have to pay £2 for a CD: that's a 20-25% increase for exactly the same product. I may be stupid, but I can only see a disadvantage for me there. Then again, at least it is still an improvement on the High Street retailers. I went into HMV two weeks ago to take advantage of the January sales. Their banner offer was the Black Eyed Peas album for £13.99. That's a standard album, recently released, costing £13.99. I decided the sales were probably a waste of time so decided to just get a CD I knew I wanted; the mad Capsule Markets album. Price? £19.99. I went home and bought the album, now with additional music videos DVD, for under £8. I also bought their new album for £8.
So, High Street gets me one, standard album. Web gets me two albums, including an additional DVD and £4 to spare. High Street doesn't look too attractive.
High Street also provides funding for the BPI... spot their incentive in raising web prices.
Don't for a second think this is the end. The BPI started exactly the same proceedings against Play and CD-Wow at the same time, it just happens CD-Wow can to an agreement with them first. There isn't a lot they can do. Established law supports the BPI and challenging that will be expensive, with only a very slight chance of success. The highest appeal possible for a UK case is the European courts, and they've already turned down Tesco's claim; which legally is identical to that CD-Wow or Play would have. If anyone chose to fight this they would be unlikely to get very far as the UK courts would simply follow the Tesco ruling. Either the law needs to be changed or someone needs to come up with one hell of an argument. Either will cost huge piles of cash to pressure the government or hire flashy lawyers.
Worst of all, there's nothing to stop the DVD or gaming industry from doing exactly the same thing. The film publishers aren't keen on international trade - that's why the Region Coding system exists. The DVD forum, who invented the standard, didn't want it; the player manufacturers don't want it, which is why it is so easy to get round (unless the manufacturer owns a studio e.g. Sony and Columbia Tri-Star); but with out the films they've got nothing to sell.
Does anyone remember the days before Play? The lottery of import duties; never knowing whether you'd get stung for extra cash on delivery, including handling charges as high as the tax, simply for the joy of being allowed to pay the duty. Buying direct for the US wasn't always easy either - not all retailers will offer it, and postage options were usually limited and expensive. Even then, there is nothing to stop the BPI/whoever from stopping the US retailers from selling the goods to you altogether, or charge a similar surcharge... no top of the postage... on top of the handling charges... on top of the import duty... on top of the actual price of the item.
All in all, this stinks. I'll gladly pay £10 for a CD, but why do that when it should be £2 less? That extra £2 is totally artificial: the BPI will either take the surcharge and pass it on to the UK companies, who did nothing to earn it; or force retailers to source from UK suppliers, even though they know the same items can be purchased over seas for less.
Sorry BPI, this consumer really isn’t buying your claim that this doesn’t affect me. I know how the Common law operates; I know you and your funders will happily grab every penny they can from me, and this is a license to charge me totally arbitrary charges on top of what the goods actually cost.
It has never been cheaper to make a CD. Album sales in the UK are rising as prices fall. PRS money to publishers and performers has never been higher on the back of huge numbers of music channels and radio stations. Yet you want me to pay more… why? “Because we can” seems the only answer.
The fact is there was nothing new at all about this "case". All that happened is the BPI took action against CD-Wow and Play, referring them to the case from last year between Tesco and Levis. Here Tesco were trying to sell imported Levis, under cutting the standard UK prices by sourcing them from the US, or East, or generally somewhere overseas.
As far as I remember it was argued right up to the European level; where it was decided levis were perfectly within their rights to stop Tesco from importing the jeans to sell at a low price.
Sound familiar?
As hundreds of thousands of UK residents are tempted back into buying the attractively priced CDs, the BPI have the inspired idea to artificially raise the price. They represent the UK record companies, who are narked that they are loosing sales as people can buy the exact same CD from the other side of the world for a foreign arm of their company. We're buy perfectly legit CDs, just taking advantage of lower prices elsewhere. Hell, the manufacturing industry does it all the time. There's international markets for any raw material, and we all know about the controversies of relocating factories to take advantage of lower wages.
So, the first group to settle are CD-Wow. The BPI claims the only people to be disadvantaged by this are CD-Wow... pardon? I'm going to have to pay £2 for a CD: that's a 20-25% increase for exactly the same product. I may be stupid, but I can only see a disadvantage for me there. Then again, at least it is still an improvement on the High Street retailers. I went into HMV two weeks ago to take advantage of the January sales. Their banner offer was the Black Eyed Peas album for £13.99. That's a standard album, recently released, costing £13.99. I decided the sales were probably a waste of time so decided to just get a CD I knew I wanted; the mad Capsule Markets album. Price? £19.99. I went home and bought the album, now with additional music videos DVD, for under £8. I also bought their new album for £8.
So, High Street gets me one, standard album. Web gets me two albums, including an additional DVD and £4 to spare. High Street doesn't look too attractive.
High Street also provides funding for the BPI... spot their incentive in raising web prices.
Don't for a second think this is the end. The BPI started exactly the same proceedings against Play and CD-Wow at the same time, it just happens CD-Wow can to an agreement with them first. There isn't a lot they can do. Established law supports the BPI and challenging that will be expensive, with only a very slight chance of success. The highest appeal possible for a UK case is the European courts, and they've already turned down Tesco's claim; which legally is identical to that CD-Wow or Play would have. If anyone chose to fight this they would be unlikely to get very far as the UK courts would simply follow the Tesco ruling. Either the law needs to be changed or someone needs to come up with one hell of an argument. Either will cost huge piles of cash to pressure the government or hire flashy lawyers.
Worst of all, there's nothing to stop the DVD or gaming industry from doing exactly the same thing. The film publishers aren't keen on international trade - that's why the Region Coding system exists. The DVD forum, who invented the standard, didn't want it; the player manufacturers don't want it, which is why it is so easy to get round (unless the manufacturer owns a studio e.g. Sony and Columbia Tri-Star); but with out the films they've got nothing to sell.
Does anyone remember the days before Play? The lottery of import duties; never knowing whether you'd get stung for extra cash on delivery, including handling charges as high as the tax, simply for the joy of being allowed to pay the duty. Buying direct for the US wasn't always easy either - not all retailers will offer it, and postage options were usually limited and expensive. Even then, there is nothing to stop the BPI/whoever from stopping the US retailers from selling the goods to you altogether, or charge a similar surcharge... no top of the postage... on top of the handling charges... on top of the import duty... on top of the actual price of the item.
All in all, this stinks. I'll gladly pay £10 for a CD, but why do that when it should be £2 less? That extra £2 is totally artificial: the BPI will either take the surcharge and pass it on to the UK companies, who did nothing to earn it; or force retailers to source from UK suppliers, even though they know the same items can be purchased over seas for less.
Sorry BPI, this consumer really isn’t buying your claim that this doesn’t affect me. I know how the Common law operates; I know you and your funders will happily grab every penny they can from me, and this is a license to charge me totally arbitrary charges on top of what the goods actually cost.
It has never been cheaper to make a CD. Album sales in the UK are rising as prices fall. PRS money to publishers and performers has never been higher on the back of huge numbers of music channels and radio stations. Yet you want me to pay more… why? “Because we can” seems the only answer.
kittworld wrote:
> Sounds like a lot of hard work to save 2 pounds per CD.]
It doesn't take much doing after the first time, so it's pretty much worth it. And think of how much cake you could buy per £2 that you save.
I guess it would be lots, but I heard the price of online cake is increasing by £2.
> Sounds like a lot of hard work to save 2 pounds per CD.]
It doesn't take much doing after the first time, so it's pretty much worth it. And think of how much cake you could buy per £2 that you save.
I guess it would be lots, but I heard the price of online cake is increasing by £2.
It'll be the other companies paying for the extra £s, like 'amex' (who?). Because they are promotional links for customers of the companies (I guess). So cdwow will just hold out for the custom and not mention anything to them.
"Any new for us, cdwow?"
"No. Sod off"
"We're bankrupt now, thanks alot"
"No problem, let's have cake"
"Any new for us, cdwow?"
"No. Sod off"
"We're bankrupt now, thanks alot"
"No problem, let's have cake"
Sounds like a lot of hard work to save 2 pounds per CD.
Crike. Don't they catch on?!
Right, to begin, visit
http://www7.cd-wow.com/promotion.php? promo_refcode=12594_0&affid=12594
Fill in the email address and send yourself the voucher
Intercept the email, click the link to activate it. Now just go to www.cd-wow.com
This will open a inside link server of something like
www5.cd-wow.com (Note the server number, in this instance – 5 )
Then click on ANY item, it doesn’t have to be the one you want, just one off the main menu.
Then redeem the £1 off using the voucher.
Then on the top bar, delete everything up to
www5.cd-wow.com/ (Delete to here, and get rid of all the numbers)(Don't delete the server number, remember.)
Then type in ‘amex’
So, something like www5.cdwow.com/amex
This will now take £1 off all CDs, and your other CD should still be in the basket.
Now add the CD you want into the basket and delete the one you don’t want.
Your item should have £2 off now.
(You can only use the same email address for one voucher, so set up some quick, free accounds at www.fsmail.net if you’re ordering a few CDs.
http://www7.cd-wow.com/promotion.php? promo_refcode=12594_0&affid=12594
Fill in the email address and send yourself the voucher
Intercept the email, click the link to activate it. Now just go to www.cd-wow.com
This will open a inside link server of something like
www5.cd-wow.com (Note the server number, in this instance – 5 )
Then click on ANY item, it doesn’t have to be the one you want, just one off the main menu.
Then redeem the £1 off using the voucher.
Then on the top bar, delete everything up to
www5.cd-wow.com/ (Delete to here, and get rid of all the numbers)(Don't delete the server number, remember.)
Then type in ‘amex’
So, something like www5.cdwow.com/amex
This will now take £1 off all CDs, and your other CD should still be in the basket.
Now add the CD you want into the basket and delete the one you don’t want.
Your item should have £2 off now.
(You can only use the same email address for one voucher, so set up some quick, free accounds at www.fsmail.net if you’re ordering a few CDs.
Icarus wrote:
> How exactly?
I'll post it up in a minute.
> How exactly?
I'll post it up in a minute.
How exactly?
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