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Offener Brief der Impala und der Künstler-, Händler- und Managerverbände FIA, FIM, GERA-Europe und IMMF zur Sony/BMG-Fusion an die Europäische Kommission. Durch diesen (englischsprachigen) Brief wird auch die Haltung des VUT zur möglichen Fusion BMG/Sony abgebildet:
Sony/BMG merger, 12 July 2004European Commission
200 Rue de La Loi
1049 Brussels
Dear Commissioner
Further to the examination by DG Competition of the proposed Sony/BGM merger, we respectfully take this opportunity to reiterate our concerns with respect to the merger. We are writing to you on behalf of independent music companies, performing artists, and entertainment retailers across Europe. We understand that the Commission may be ready to take the view that the merger should be waived through with no conditions attached to the approval. Such a decision would be fundamentally flawed and challengeable. It would cause extraordinary damage to our interests. We ask you to ensure that the Commission reviews its options.
The Commission has said twice now that further concentration would pose severe horizontal and vertical problems, including in the recorded market, in publishing and in the development of the on-line market. The first time was in 2000 in the context of the attempted EMI/Warner merger. The second time was just a few weeks ago when it presented the conclusions of its investigation into Sony/BMG in its formal Statement of Objections.
We agreed with the findings of the Statement of Objections as such and do not understand the sudden "change of heart". We challenge, however, a process which has failed to take legitimate grounds for concern on board. We are groups most likely to be affected by this decision and we have provided the Commission with ample reasons as to why, at the very least, conditions should accompany any clearance of the merger. We provided evidence on collective dominance and indicated essential concerns that required full investigation by the Commission. Given this, we cannot understand how the Commission could possibly contemplate such an \'easy\' clearance.
We are seriously concerned that the Commission does not appear to have properly considered the impact of the merger in a number of key areas in recording, promotion, marketing, distribution, retail, licensing, publishing, and in various vertical broadcasting and on-line markets.
A reduction in the number of majors and an increase in their relative size will severely distort the market, enhancing the ability of the major record companies to use their collective power to gain anti-competitive results across all these sectors. This stifles innovation and competition in music, price, new formats and the internet, when in fact we should be doing quite the reverse.
Any decision to simply waive through the merger would be the worst possible outcome. The impact of going from 5 to 4 cannot be underestimated. The answer is more competition not more concentration. The parties have said that piracy and illegal downloading render concentration necessary. But they don\'t talk about the fact that demand for music has never been higher or the fact that revenues are up in all markets save for CDs. The issue is value, quality and the lack of innovation regarding music, formats and the internet. This is typical in markets already suffering excessive concentration.
The fact is the market is full of opportunity. The majors just need to share it. All these market problems can be rectified with reasonable conditions. That way we are all able to benefit from new and existing opportunities and ensure real and effective competition across the whole music economy.
Competition and diversity on the music market is an opportunity Europe?s economy, culture, trade balance and consumers cannot afford to miss.
Yours faithfully
FIA The International Federation of Actors represents more than 100 performers- unions, guilds and professional associations in all continents. www.fia-actors.com
FIM The International Federation of Musicians protects and furthers the economic, social and artistic interests of musicians organised in nearly 70 member unions throughout the world. www.fim-musicians.com
GERA-Europe The Global Entertainment Retail Association-Europe represents entertainment retailers and their national associations at European level with respect to all issues that affect the way entertainment retailers do their business.www.gera-europe.org
IMMF The IMMF is the international representative of the country-level associations of music managers worldwide. Music managers themselves are the exclusive legal representatives of their clients, featured artists and composers, in all aspects of their professional careers. http://www.immf.net
IMPALA The Independent Music Companies represents the interests of independent record labels and publishers across Europe. The independents are world leaders in terms of R&D and discovering new music and artists. www.impalasite.org
http://www.impalasite.org
VUT e.V. Verband unabhängiger Tonträgerunternehmen, Musikverlage und Musikproduzenten e.V.
Eva Kiltz
Wrangelstrasse 66
10997 Berlin