Nintendo is protesting a fine levied against it by European Union regulators, calling the $232 million penalty "unfair, illegal, even shocking."
In 2002, the European Commission fined Nintendo and seven distributors a total of $168 million euros (or about $262 million USD) for colluding to raise prices on games and consoles throughout the 1990s.
According to the Commission, it is Nintendo's responsibility as producer and supplier to keep a careful eye on its distributors to prevent such price-fixing shenanigans. The company's failure to adequately do so is what merits the financial penalty.
"The fine was not of a capricious nature, or based on wild estimates. "This fine was for an infringement that was considered very serious," said Xavier Lewis, a lawyer for the commission.
Nintendo believes that the fine, "one of the biggest single fines in EU competition law" according to the company's lawyers, to be unjustified.
*
Image courtesy Capcom*
Hearing T13-03 [Court of First Instance, via Bloomberg]
