Court in Antitrust Case against ACNielsen Rejects IRI Pricing Theory.HAARLEM, Netherlands -- VNU VNU Volontaires des Nations Unies (French) VNU Verenigde Nederlandse Uitgeversbedrijven (Dutch) VNU Virtual Network User , a leading global information and media company, today announced that its ACNielsen business unit won an important ruling in the antitrust lawsuit by Information Resources (1) The data and information assets of an organization, department or unit. See data administration. (2) Another name for the Information Systems (IS) or Information Technology (IT) department. See IT. , Inc. (IRI Iri (ē`rē`), former city, North Jeolla (Cholla) prov., SW South Korea. An agricultural center and transportation hub, it was absorbed into Iksan. ) against ACNielsen. The 1996 lawsuit includes claims that ACNielsen unlawfully priced certain customer contracts below cost and "bundled" contracts by offering discounts to customers in countries where ACNielsen faced no competition on the condition that the customer purchase from ACNielsen in markets where it had competition. In an order issued last Friday, the Court ruled for ACNielsen, determining that the economic analysis on which IRI had relied to establish alleged unlawful below-cost pricing and bundling is inadmissible That which, according to established legal principles, cannot be received into evidence at a trial for consideration by the jury or judge in reaching a determination of the action. as a matter of law. The Court ruled that IRI's expert report on liability and damages, to the extent it relied on the improper analysis can not be presented at trial. Specifically, the Court ruled that IRI is barred from arguing that ACNielsen's pricing practices or discounts were illegal or anti-competitive unless IRI can prove they involved prices below short-run average variable cost, which must be calculated without the inclusion of certain costs designated by ACNielsen as "Fixed Operations" costs. The Court also ruled that the same standard applies in determining the legality of bundled discounts, with discounts offered in noncompetitive markets subtracted from ACNielsen's prices in the competitive markets. The analysis relied on by IRI to support the claims of below-cost pricing and bundling impermissibly im·per·mis·si·ble adj. Not permitted; not permissible: impermissible behavior. im included Fixed Operations costs as part of the relevant cost structure. While there will be further proceedings on this and other issues in the case, VNU believes that the Court's rejection of IRI's arguments seriously impairs IRI's antitrust claims. VNU believes that IRI's claims are wholly without merit. VNU VNU is a global information and media company with leading market positions and recognized brands in marketing information (ACNielsen), media measurement and information (Nielsen Media Research) and business information (Billboard, The Hollywood Reporter, Computing, Intermediair). VNU is active in more than 100 countries, with headquarters in Haarlem, the Netherlands and New York New York, state, United States New York, Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of , USA. The company employs 36,000 people. Total revenues amounted to EUR EUR In currencies, this is the abbreviation for the Euro. Notes: The currency market, also known as the Foreign Exchange market, is the largest financial market in the world, with a daily average volume of over US $1 trillion. 3.9 billion in 2003. VNU is listed on the Euronext Amsterdam (ASE (Adaptive Server Enterprise) A relational DBMS from Sybase that runs on Windows NT/2000, Linux and a variety of Unix platforms. ASE is a comprehensive and robust data management product with a long history dating back to the late 1980s. : VNU) stock exchange. For more information, please visit the VNU website at www.vnu.com |
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