Lawsuit:
STATES OF NEW YORK AND MARYLAND (Plantiff) V. NINTENDO OF AMERICA
INC. AND NINTENDO CO., LTD., (Defendant) - Antitrust
Introduction
ROM chip shortages
in '88 caused Nintendo to notify retailers that only 25% of their
orders would be available to ship. Because of the supply shortages,
most if not all Nintendo products were wiped off of store shelves
in a quick hurry. Stores, however, did not have the extra inventory
to slide back on.
All over retailers
and lawyers alike jumped on Nintendo for falsely claiming the
shortages on top of pointing fingers at a slew of monopoly and
unfair business practices.
Court
Summary
"Antitrust"
was
the recurring word in the court case.
Conclusion
Nintendo was
ordered by Judge Robert Sweet to advertise and send out $5 coupons
valid for the purchase of new NES games. And thanks to more threats
of lawsuits and further FTC investigation, Nintendo announced
to its licensees in October '90 that they would be allowed to
manufacture their own cartridges and make software for competitor's
hardware.
