Activision fined €1m for price raising
Nintendo plus distributors fined €168m.
No, Europe's most powerful court has told Activision Blizzard, your fine for colluding with other top companies to raise the price of consoles and games between the years 1991 to 1998 will not be lowered.
There was "sufficient evidence of the existence of an agreement between Activision Blizzard and Nintendo which was contrary to EU law", ruled the European Court of Justice.
"Consequently, the Court dismisses the appeal."
Activision Blizzard has been fined, wait for it, €1 million!
But before you cry murder, understand that Activision Blizzard played no part in the aforementioned crime. In this case, Activision Blizzard refers to Activision Blizzard Germany, a company formerly known as CD-Contact Data. And CD-Contact Data imported cartridges for Nintendo in 1997.
The guilt here rests on ring-leader Nintendo and its seven distributors: John Menzies (UK); Concentra – Produtos para crianças (Portugal); Linea GIG (Italy); Bergsala (Sweden); Itochu Hellas, the wholly-owned Greek subsidiary of Itochu Corporation, a Japanese undertaking; Nortec (Greece); and Activision Blizzard Germany, formerly CD-Contact Data (Belgium and Luxembourg).
Their fine? A combined €167.843 million (£142.215 million).