MUSIC BIZ’S ANTITRUST CONCERNS

Speakers, panelists and attendees at the upcoming Music Biz 2015 confab in Nashville are buzzing about strict guidelines regarding potential antitrust issues in their presentations, speeches and discussions.

Although Music Biz’s antitrust counsel will be present, participants are being pressed to self-police and adhere to the starkly worded “principles” forbidding any hinting of “agreement” on pricing, profits, marketshare and territorial or technological restrictions. See the directive and list of taboo topics below.

The Music Business Association is committed to full and complete compliance with the antitrust laws. All meetings, presentations and panel discussions of any kind will be conducted in strict compliance with these guidelines. There shall be no discussion or exchange of any information concerning any matter which is inconsistent with the proposition that each company must exercise its independent business judgment in pricing its services or products, dealing with its customers and suppliers, and choosing the markets in which it will compete.

Accordingly, there should not be any agreement, invitation to agree, a suggestion to agree, or signaling a decision that competitors might follow, concerning:

1. prices, price changes, price quotations, pricing policies, discounts, payment terms, credit, allowances, or terms or conditions of sale;

2. profits, profit margins or cost data;

3. market share, sales territories or markets;

4. the allocation of customers or territories;

5. selection, rejection or termination of customers or suppliers;

6. restricting the territory or markets in which a company may resell services or products;

7. restricting the customers to whom a company may sell;

8. unreasonable restrictions on the development or use of technologies.