They are already billing it "the Mario wars" - the European Commission, in the form of its Competition Commissioner, Mr Mario Monti, yesterday announced it was taking legal action against the creators of SuperMario and Game Boy, Nintendo, and several of their distributors.
Issuing its statement of objections, the first shot in the legal process, the Commission said it believed the companies were involved in dividing up the European market for Nintendo products in a way which appeared to breach EU competition rules and kept prices artificially high.
Nintendo distributes its own products in some EU states. In Ireland, however, The Games Ltd, a subsidiary of John Menzies, became official distributor in 1995.
Mr Monti said the Commission "is here to protect the public from business practices designed to keep prices artificially high. European families spend millions every year on video games and we want to make sure that they are not being swindled."
The Commission investigation, begun in 1995, found the company and its distributors carved up the national territories of the EU between them and then collaborated to exclude the possibility of parallel trade through unofficial exports by imposing export bans and controls on their retail outlets.
The investigation showed price differences were "frequent and large, sometimes double from one EU country to another", the Commission said.
The Commission claims it has evidence the companies worked closely together to find the source of any parallel trade when it emerged and companies which allowed it to happen were sanctioned. Nintendo is also accused of making it difficult for distributors to engage in price com petition.
By 1997 Nintendo had sold some 55 million Game Boy consoles and 235 million Game Boy compatible games worldwide. It had also sold 46 million SNES static consoles for which consumers had bought 359 million gamecartridges. Advanced consoles had made their way into over 10 million European households. Nintendo's turnover in 1998 was €3.8 billion (£3 billion), a large part of it within Europe.
The companies have two months to respond, after which the Commission rules formally on the infringements and may impose fines.
