Grokster, the US music-swapping network that came to prominence in the wake of Napster's collapse, has turned the tables on the major music labels by reporting them to the office of Fair trading. The site, which allows users to swap music tracks on a huge global network, claims record companies are guilty of "unfair business practices and restraint of trade" by refusing to discuss ways in which they could legalise its service. The Grokster president, Wayne Rosso, claims European record labels are refusing to consider licensing tracks to it and other file sharing services. "It's clearly a cartel in violation of competition laws. We've tried to negotiate with the record labels. They leave us no choice but to protect consumers and ourselves from these grievous practices," Mr Rosso told trade magazine New Media Age. Other legal download services have also complained that they have found it hard to get labels to agree to licence their tracks, instead favouring OD2, the music download company backed by singer Peter Gabriel that yesterday announced a deal with Microsoft. Full article here.