CD WOW! - An Important Announcement

Scruff

BBC News

CD-Wow! had been accused of violating UK copyright law by importing cheaper CDs from outside Europe to the UK.

The retailer says it will now raise UK CD prices by £2 as it will have to buy more expensive CDs from Europe.

"I am delighted that we have been able to resolve this case on agreed terms," BPI chairman Peter Jamieson said.

The BPI and CD-Wow! released a joint statement after the settlement was reached.

.....

CD-Wow! currently charges £8.99 for a CD in the Top 75 albums chart, but will now have to add a £2 surcharge to any CDs delivered in the UK or Ireland from this Sunday, director Philip Robinson told BBC News Online.

That means ~ €5 increase for us in yoyo land.

bastarding British Phonographic Industry. Still not going to buy in HMV anymore!

ThreadKiller

Third thread today...

Mr E

Ugh... expect a gloat on the IRMA website later today (even though they had nothing to do with it)

This is bullshit....

- Dave.

uberwolf

will this apply to the Honk kong site which most people are prob using at this stage anyway?

Scruff

Originally posted by ThreadKiller
Third thread today...

doh. you really are what yer name says arent ye? :rolleyes:
mod delete or merge so.

ThreadKiller

All you had to do was look...

& yes... yes I am.

tomED

"CD WOW! - An Important Announcement

Dear Member,

The UK Major record companies through their mouth piece the BPI* have unfortunately restricted the UK and Irish consumers right to enjoy the freedom of the World Wide Web."

ABSOLUTE DISGRACE!!!

Why does this always happen. WE get something decent on the web only for it to be taken away from us.............................

ThreadKiller

Sent this in reply...

Hi,

I got your email this morning about the agreement in favour of the BPI, my commiserations as I thought you were one of the best etailers around, however as an Irish resident, I’d like to know what jurisdiction the British courts & British Phonographic Industry have over me as a consumer.

Ireland (republic) stopped being part of the UK eighty plus years ago & british law no longer applies here.

I’m looking forward to your reply.


Sincerely


xxxxx xxxxxxxxxxxx

tomED

Sent!

Be interesting to see a response! lol

woosaysdan

nice one ThreadKiller, cant wait for the response

fjon

What I'd like to know is will this surcharge still apply if someone orders off the HK or US site? The Pre-release prices on the HK site have not changed, although the US CDs seem to have gone up by €1

yop

Did the same there this morning.... will be fun


Dear Sir/Madam

I am after receiving your email as regards the restrictions imposed by the BPI, it is a shame that they can bully you into doing this.
One thing that puzzles me is that you have included Ireland in surcharge.
Can you explain how we are included as we are obviously still not under British rule and thereofore not within the juristiction of the BPI so therefore any decisions by this body does not effect Ireland. So how can you impose this surcharge?

Looking forward to your reply

fjon

It wasn't just BPI that was suing CD Wow - it was IRMA as well:

INTERNET vendor CDWow will no longer be able to import cut price CDs to Ireland from outside Europe, following settlement of its dispute with the Irish Recorded Music Association (IRMA).

From Sunday, consumers will have to pay a surcharge of €3 on each CD purchased from CDWow after it settled cases with IRMA and the British Phonographic Industry, which said they were flouting trade laws.

CDWow has been offering prices of around €14 for best-selling CDs, compared with high street prices of around €22 in many cases.

IRMA said CDWow had been illegally selling CDs from Hong Kong which, though legitimate versions, were purchased at a much lower price than in Europe and subject to much lower royalty rates for artists.

"I am delighted that we have been able to resolve this case on agreed terms without the need for a trial," said Dick Doyle, Director General of IRMA.

CDWow owner Philip Robinson said last night the deal will dampen CD sales as a whole, because people who bought two or three a month might buy only one now, if they are no longer regarded as good value.

steviem

You can currently get chart CD's from GB£6.49 via the Ryanair shop.

http://www.ryanaironlineshop.com/

Shred

consumers will have to pay a surcharge of €3 on each CD purchased from CDWow

Still cheaper than buying CD's at yer local retailer and delivered to your doorstep. Purely on principal I won't give the likes of HMV, VIRGIN etc my money, robbing gits:mad:

rocco

Ill still buy from cdwow they have beem very good to deal with the whole situation is a disgrace as if the record companies arent making enough cash as it is

ThreadKiller

Hi,

Thanks for your e-mail.

The BPI represents the music industry in the UK and Ireland.

It might be worth registering your concerns with the BPI itself.

Please let me know if you have any further queries.



Kind regards


-> Not very satisfactory

Villain

how do you stop www.cdwow.com.hk redirecting to the british site??

Chevano Riley

Originally posted by irish1
how do you stop www.cdwow.com.hk redirecting to the british site??

link: http://www4.cd-wow.com.hk/index.php

anthonymcg

Originally posted by Shred
Still cheaper than buying CD's at yer local retailer and delivered to your doorstep. Purely on principal I won't give the likes of HMV, VIRGIN etc my money, robbing gits:mad:

Ditto. Never gonna buy from those retailers again.

yop

Got my response.....Is it me or is this not what was sent out this morning!!


















Return to: Inbox


Prev message Next message Inbox/New Mail Reply Reply-All Forward Message 2 of 55


From: "CD WOW! Customer Services" <reply@cd-wow.com>
Subject: CD WOW! - an Important Announcement
Date: Thu, 22 Jan 2004 14:18:24 -0000
Attachments:

---

Hello

Many thanks for your email.

As a result of our agreement with the BPI, the following joint statement has
been released:

"The record industry claimed that CD WOW! Was obtaining sound recordings
from outside Europe and selling them to UK and Irish consumers. As a result
of the settlement CD WOW! Has agreed that it will not sell CDs that have
been first placed on the market outside Europe to UK and Irish customers. It
will only sell CDs that have first been placed on the European market to UK
and Irish customers. All other details of the settlement are confidential"

Basically as from Sunday 25th January a surcharge of £2.00 (3 Euros) will be
applicable on each CD purchased whereby the delivery address is UK or
Ireland.

For delivery outside of UK and Ireland, the surcharge will not apply.
Another case of 'rip off Britain' I’m afraid.

The surcharge will not affect the purchase of DVDs or Games as the BPI only
represents the UK major record companies.

Please rest assured that everyone at CD WOW! Is doing everything possible to
keep our prices low.

Thank you for your support.

Thank you for choosing CD-WOW!

Kind regards,

Viktoria

WOW! Customer Services
www.cd-wow.com
www.wowwoman.com

quarryman

so basically we have 2 days to buy as many cds as possible. i'm assuming they'll honour the currect prices?

SheroN

im just gonna download all my music illegally, that'll learn them!....

Only Messing of course im not, that sort of thing is wrong, down with that kind of thing.

embee

Originally posted by yop
Basically as from Sunday 25th January a surcharge of £2.00 (3 Euros) will be
applicable on each CD purchased

so away with ye all and buy up a storm before it kicks in in three days..........

ThreadKiller

Hi xxxx,

Thank you for your e-mail.

I will pass your information on.

Unfortunately it doesn't matter what site you use as it all depends on the delivery address as to wether or not the extra charge is incurred.

If you require any further assistance please do not hesitate to contact us again.

Best Regards

Tony
Games Guru..<..
www.cd-wow.com

---

Original Message

---

From: xxxx xxxxxxx
Sent: 22 January 2004 14:01


To: reply@cd-wow.com
Subject: RE: CD WOW! Thank you


Hi,



Thanks for getting back to me. In actual fact IRMA represents the music industry in Ireland (unless they’ve been misrepresenting themselves for years…). The BPI has absolutely no jurisdiction in the Irish republic (southern Ireland).



Would it be possible for you to look into it? Also, is purchasing through one of your other domains thus bypassing the UK & IE domains be allowed?



Regards,

xxxx xxxxxxx

sunbeam

Originally posted by ThreadKiller
Hi xxxx,

Thank you for your e-mail.

I will pass your information on.

Unfortunately it doesn't matter what site you use as it all depends on the delivery address as to wether or not the extra charge is incurred.

If you require any further assistance please do not hesitate to contact us again.

Best Regards

Tony
Games Guru..<..
www.cd-wow.com

So this means that the extra €3 will be on top of the increased prices showing on the pre-releases?

Still most of the prices on the .hk site will work out at just over €14 which won't be too bad-though many cds on play.com are cheaper.

colin300

I sent them a mail as well saying why should we be bound by british law when we are not british and even that thought is an insult.
Typical really but wait for a while they will cop on that they are not selling as many cd's as they use to. I was listening on the radio to a spokesperson for cd wow and they said they had 300,000 Irish customers last year not bad i have to say. Next year this will most likely be 50,000 to 100,000 this year.


I can't wait to see the backlash from this though it will be something mad. BPI site will probably be hacked for a few months until people lose interest.


One thing i want to know is why the hell they get targeted and not Amazon.co.uk and Play.com as i saw a thing on sky news a while ago talking about this but amazon and play.com were included why the hell weren't these forced to do the same thing. I can understand why amazon weren't they probably buy theres in the EU. But Play.com don't I don't get it.


The thing about royalties is a blatant lie. They must think that most people are as thick as too planks they probably are right but come on don't be that stupid. Every news bulletin to do with downloading music and that sort of stuff bring up royalties and they say no matter where you buy it they get the same about of royalties.


When it comes to the increase of £2 in england is going to have a major impact on sales. They probably get about 1million orders or so from england that will go down to about 100,000 this is because english people think before they buy and they have many more options like play.com and they don't have to pay an exchange rate so they get it cheap.


I give cdwow a life span of 2 years then they will either give up and say they aren't making profit anymore on cd's or go bankrupt. Then hopefully the guy that set it up will start another company that does the same thing and we'll be able to get cd's cheap.

Mr Grumpy

This is a pisser - it really is. Over the last few years since CDWOW started trading (I was customer No: 105) I've bought 100's of CD's (from Amazon, play and other too) - far more than I would have from HMV/Virgin etc. As a musician I've always resisted d/ling music - I personally don't agree with it plus the fact I like the tactile feel of CD's (and vinyl). The BPI, IRMA and other so called representatives of the music industry are shooting themselves (and the artists they are suposed to represent - oops I forgot they represent the industry not the artists) in the foot. Music for the masses (as Depeche Mode said) but at an acceptable price. Cut out the middle man as much as possible. Lots of bands sell direct from their website or from independant label websites (we do!) so please support them. I will never buy a CD from a high street retailer again - and I'm not alone. Let's kill off that dinosaur of the high street. Buy on-line. Support music. Support the musicians.

/rant mode off