EU gives green light to Sony-BMG music tie-up, again

0 Comments | AFP, October, 2007

BRUSSELS (AFP) — EU competition regulators gave Wednesday a new green light to a recorded music joint venture between Sony Music and Germany's BMG, after a court ordered a reassessment of the merger.

The European Commission decided that the creation of Sony BMG "would not create or strengthen a dominant or collectively dominant position in the music markets."

The merger bid has a long history that has brought it into the European courts.

The marriage, which would give birth to the second-largest music group in the world, was originally approved by the Commission, the EU's executive body and top competition regulator, in 2004.

However independent music labels brought a case to the European Court of First Instance, the EU's second highest tribunal,...