October 25^th, 2002 (12:00am) - The Japanese giant is reportedly set to be fined after being found guilty of illegally banning software sales between European countries
Nintendo has been found guilty of a violation of European anti-trust laws, the Wall Street Journal reports today. The European Commission’s antitrust department has found the company in breach of the law by preventing software and hardware sales between different European countries.

Though software across the EU is identical, different countries have different pricing schemes in operation despite the so-called "single-market," and Nintendo is reported to have been preventing customers buying cheaper products from different countries to preserve its profit margins.

According to the article, the company may be sanctioned as early as next Wednesday.

When contacted for comment, a spokesperson for Nintendo said: "A formal decision has not yet been recieved from the European Commision, however we are aware that a decision is imminent.