Brussels, 26/01/2001 (Agence Europe) - A spokesperson for Commissioner Mario Monti announced, on Friday, that the Commission had opened an investigation on the vertical links that would have been concluded between five major music publishing groups and retailers suspects of fixing prices artificially high for compact discs (CDs) in the EU. The groups under suspicion are EMI, Bertelsmann (through its subsidiary BMG), Warner Music, Sony and Universal, all present throughout the EU. The investigation, which is at the preliminary stage and which does not prejudge in any way a positive or negative solution, noted the spokesperson, was initiated following a similar investigation carried out around one year ago by the FTC (Federal Trade Commission), the American competition authorities, into the same companies, for the same reasons. An agreement had been found in the meantime, but had raised suspicions for the Commission, which was also investigating the merger between EMI and Time Warner. At the present time, the Commission is gathering facts, figures and testimonies that it will examine. If it manages to gather enough evidence of an anti-competitive agreement, it will then decide to open a formal procedure and send a statement of objections to the groups concerned. The spokesperson added that in this investigation, carried out on the initiative of the Commission and not following a complaint, the Commission is also in contact with the consumer associations, notably, in Italy in order to complete the dossier.