Well, this will be interesting. No, really, it will be, honest. The European Union's Court Of First Instance will this Thursday make a ruling as to whether competition officials at the European Commission were right or wrong to give the go ahead for the Sony BMG merger back in 2004.
As you all know, officials allowed the German and Japanese media conglomerates to merge their recorded music businesses, creating SonyBMG, but that decision has been disputed from the start by IMPALA, the body that represents the independent record companies in Europe.
IMPALA say EC officials failed to consider the merger's impact on issues such as 'collective dominance' and 'marketing access', and that they should have inquired further into the impact the merged companies' dominance would have on European culture, consumer choice and diversity. They argue that the decision to allow the merger to go ahead should be annulled because of "manifest errors of law, assessment and reasoning in relation to collective dominance", and with that in mind they launched legal proceedings against the decision through the EU courts last year.
The Luxembourg-based Court, which has examined the case in an "expedited" procedure, has announced it will make a ruling this week. On that announcement, IMPALA Deputy Secretary General Helen Smith told reporters: "It's a good sign that the Court is coming to a decision now, just before the summer recess. It shows that the case has been taken seriously".
Quite what the EC can do about the Sony BMG merger now, even if the courts rule that their decision was wrong, isn't clear - though if judges do rule against further consolidation in the music industry, it might make the chances of any EMI Warner merger getting EC approval less likely.