MUSIC INDUSTRY : INDEPENDENTS UP IN ARMS AGAINST SONY-BMG CLEARANCE.

The authorisation by the European Commission of the merger between two major music companies, the Japanese Sony Music and Bertelsmann Music Group (BMG) of Germany, continues to irritate independent record labels. Their association, Impala, was impatiently awaiting the oral argument planned for early November in the EU Court of Justice concerning the appeal lodged by Sony-BMG against the ruling handed down by the Court of First Instance on 13 July 2006 (Case C-413/06 P). "We are expecting the Court to defend the CFI's decision, which held that the Commission should not have authorised the merger, and to judge that Sony-BMG's appeal was not well-founded," explains Helen Smith, the secretary-general of Impala.

After reopening its investigation, the Commission...

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