Division (22)

With respect to transparency, the Commission found that the publication of weekly charts, the stability of the common customer base and the majors’ monitoring of the retail market by means of weekly reports increase the market transparency and facilitate the monitoring of a coordinated policy. However, the investigation also indicated that the monitoring of campaign discounts requires monitoring on an album level, which reduces the transparency in the market and makes tacit collusion more difficult. On balance, the Commission has not found sufficient evidence that the majors have overcome this transparency deficit in the past.