{"id":1421,"date":"2012-02-22T22:45:40","date_gmt":"2012-02-22T22:45:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/skylight.gr\/administrator_wordpress\/index.php\/2012\/02\/22\/impala-welcomes-start-of-universalemi-regulatory-process-in-europe-expects-outright-no-to-protect-online-market-and-consumer-prices\/"},"modified":"2012-02-22T22:45:40","modified_gmt":"2012-02-22T22:45:40","slug":"impala-welcomes-start-of-universalemi-regulatory-process-in-europe-expects-outright-no-to-protect-online-market-and-consumer-prices","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/skylight.gr\/index.php\/2012\/02\/22\/impala-welcomes-start-of-universalemi-regulatory-process-in-europe-expects-outright-no-to-protect-online-market-and-consumer-prices\/","title":{"rendered":"IMPALA Welcomes Start Of Universal\/EMI Regulatory Process In Europe, Expects Outright &#8216;no&#8217; To Protect Online Market And Consumer Prices"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span class=\"normal\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" size-full wp-image-1006\" src=\"http:\/\/skylight.gr\/administrator_wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/10\/emi_logo-300x145-copy.jpg\" border=\"0\" width=\"160\" height=\"77\" \/><br \/>With Universal finally notifying its EMI deal in Europe two  months after filing in the USA and three months after the sale was announced,  independent music companies welcome the start of the official regulatory  process.  <!--more-->  <br \/>Helen Smith, IMPALA Executive Chair commented: &#8220;The clock has  finally started ticking in Europe. Ultimately we expect this to lead to an  outright rejection of both Uni\/EMI and Sony\/EMI mergers. Keeping the online  market as open as possible is essential for competition and for responding to  piracy, as well as other market problems. Turning music into a two-horse race  would hamper the natural development of the market and increase prices. No level  of divestments or behavioural undertakings would prevent that from  happening.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>IMPALA will now supplement the evidence already provided to  the regulators in early January. IMPALA points out that Europe has already  effectively set a maximum size for music companies, which both Universal and  Sony exceeded before they started bidding for EMI. Piracy and the importance of  the online market, as well as other current market conditions, require an even  stricterregulatory line on consolidation today than ever before. Leniency would  simply result in market distortions such as increased prices, reduced output,  market access restrictions, lower cultural diversity and consumer  choice.<\/p>\n<p>The European Commission now has to decide whether it should  launch a detailed investigation. IMPALA has already received a questionnaire and  will reply in due course. The same is expected on Sony\/EMI. IMPALA confirms it  will continue to co-operate fully with the regulators on both sides of the  Atlantic, to make it clear why the deals would be the worst possible outcome for  competition, artists and consumers, as well as for the development of a thriving  and diverse online market.<\/p>\n<p>Source:<\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.impalamusic.org\/\" target=\"_blank\">http:\/\/www.impalamusic.org<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>With Universal finally notifying its EMI deal in Europe two months after filing in the&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1006,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1421","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-music-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/skylight.gr\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1421","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/skylight.gr\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/skylight.gr\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/skylight.gr\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/skylight.gr\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1421"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/skylight.gr\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1421\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/skylight.gr\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1006"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/skylight.gr\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1421"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/skylight.gr\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1421"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/skylight.gr\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1421"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}