The European Commission said it was investigating possible compact disc price-fixing among five multi-national music houses.
A spokeswoman for competition commissioner Mario Monti said the enquiry was in its early stages and declined to give details, other than to say it concerned EMI, Time Warner, Sony, Bertelsmann and Universal, representing the majority of the CD market.
The five companies had been investigated by the US Federal Trade Commission last year, said the spokeswoman, and an accord was reached.
She said the commission's enquiry began after that, and also as a result of suspicions raised when, in the course of an unrelated commission enquiry into a proposed EMI-Time Warner merger, 'abnormally high' CD prices were noted.
Monti had been prepared to block the EMI-Time Warner deal on the view that it would have led to a concentration of market power which allowed tacit control of prices. The two companies broke off their merger plan rather than incur the commission's block of the deal.
Companies may face large fines if found guilty of price fixing.
