That’s a Gibson logo over there but Gibson aren’t the only ones caught up in a series of legal actions that accuse Gibson themselves, Fender, Yamaha, Guitar Centre and the National Association of Music Merchants (NAMM) of meeting to agree price fixing arrangements. The plaintiffs in these cases claim the alleged cartel is in violation of the Sherman Antitrust Act.

The industry association denies the charges but their attorney has declined to comment pending litigation.

Gibson, however, have commented.  This was published earlier today, 27th January.

Official Statement from Gibson Guitar Corp
01.27.2010

Gibson Guitar Corp. is one of many manufacturers and organizations in the Musical Instrument Industry that has been named a party to approximately 30 lawsuits that claim they conspired to artificially increase and fix the prices of musical instruments. These lawsuits stemmed from an investigation by the Federal Trade Commission that lasted several years and was not pursued by the FTC after they concluded the investigation.

The allegation that Gibson participated in any scheme to artificially inflate or fix prices is wholly without merit. Gibson strives to provide customers with the best musical instruments in the world and to build lifelong relationships with musicians who choose the Gibson brand.

Gibson believes in the American system of justice and believes that, through that system, the claims against Gibson will show to have no merit. Unfortunately, that process will undoubtedly result in high costs to many organizations that, like Gibson, strive to provide music lovers everywhere with quality instruments and aggressively compete on price. They provide true and accurate information to their consumers, and continue to innovate and provide great value in product offerings overall.

This all kicked off a few months ago and there are apparently close to 30 separate lawsuits making similar allegations.

I think we’ll watch this closely.