CD WOW rejects industry erosion jibe

Online music store CD WOW has hit back at accusations from the British record industry that it is breaching a 2004 court order to stop selling music imported from Asia. CD WOW is a website which sells physical music in the form of CDs, and has been able to sell at very cheap prices by importing cheap stock from the Far East.

CD WOW agreed back in 2004 to stop importing these cheap CDs from South East Asia because the process of parallel importing breaks trade mark laws. But the British Phonographic Industry (BPI) is claiming that it has recently bought 33 CDs on the CD WOW website which were dispatched from Hong Kong, destined for unlicensed territories including the UK.

This alleged parallel importing would be in direct breach of the earlier court ruling to which CD WOW agreed.

The online retailer says that the BPI's legal team said: "One of the great causes of concern to the UK record industry at the present time is that prices for CDs and DVDs are being pushed down by the ability for consumers to obtain the same CD and DVD from companies such as CD WOW, and that is a very significant concern."

But CD WOW responded saying that the BPI is paranoid, and that accusations that it and other sites like it are eroding the market are false and unjust.