Nintendo continues to fight 'surprising' anti-trust fine
After all, where would the money come from?
Back in 2002, Nintendo was fined €149 million (then £92.1 million) by the European Commission for price-fixing in some EU countries, after the commission's anti-trust officials decided that enough was enough.
It was pretty bad over here, but even worse in Germany and the Netherlands, where prices were up to 65 per cent higher.
At the time, Nintendo vowed to fight the fine, which it deemed "surprising." True to its word, the company still hasn't paid up, and the latest chapter in the story came yesterday at the European Court in Luxembourg when a lawyer acting for Nintendo cranked up the rhetoric, complaining that the "penalty was unfair, illegal, even shocking."
Note, Nintendo accepts that it broke EU trade rules, but thinks the punishment is disproportionate.
Sympathetic?
Incidentally, the news comes on the same day that BBC News is running a story about how environmentally destructive games consoles are, and particularly those made by Nintendo. Not a good day for the PR department, then.
