LUXEMBOURG - A EUROPEAN court on Thursday reduced a fine imposed by the EU executive commission on Japanese video game giant Nintendo and distributors in 2002 for anti-competitive practices.

The court slashed 40 per cent off the original 149 million euro fine against Nintento and did the same to the one-million-euro fine levied against CD Contact Data, the Japanese firm's sole distributor for Belgium and Luxembourg.

In October 2002 the European Commission imposed fines on Nintendo and some of its distributors for having participated in a complex of pricing agreements and concerted practices in the markets for Nintendo consoles and game cartridges.

The European Court of Justice in Luxembourg in justice pointed out that some of the other companies involved in the case had received sizeable reductions in their fines for cooperating with EU investigators.

Applying the principle of 'equal treatment' the court ruled that Nintendo itself had 'produced the relevant documents at the same stage of the procedure and its cooperation must be regarded as comparable.'

The court also found that CD Contact Data had played 'a passive role in the infringement,' like fellow distributor Concentra, which had had its fine cut in half in the original 2002 decision.

Therefore the European court reduced Nintendo's fine to 119 million euros and CD Contact Data's to 500,000 euros. -- AFP