Record Firm Alleges Conspiracy : Music: A Burbank importer says an industry group gave Customs false information, leading the agency to impound the company’s merchandise.

A tiny Burbank record-importing company has launched a legal battle against the Recording Industry Assn. of America and the U.S. Customs Service, charging them with conspiracy, interference with the operation of its business and attempts to monopolize the market for recorded music.

NVA Records, which imports records and compact discs of hard-to-find recordings by popular musicians such as Bob Dylan and obscure artists that can’t otherwise be found in the United States, filed a lawsuit in federal court in Los Angeles in February.

That suit was dismissed by the court on May 20 on technical grounds, but NVA was given until June 10 to file an amended complaint.

Steve Schultz, co-founder of NVA, said his attorney is preparing the amended complaint.

In the original complaint, NVA contended that the RIAA, which represents the nation’s biggest record companies, provided false and misleading information to the Customs Service, leading the agency to suspect NVA’s imports were bootlegged or pirated.

Starting in 1989, the suit asserted, Los Angeles Customs officials repeatedly seized NVA shipments worth up to $50,000 each from Japan, Germany, France and other countries. NVA said Customs held the goods for several weeks at a time, and told NVA that the records and compact discs were being investigated for possible copyright violations.

Schultz said that Customs would routinely detain between 30% and 50% of NVA’s imports, but all of them, except for about 50 records, were eventually delivered to NVA. Still, NVA lost business, he said, because it couldn’t make timely deliveries to its customers--about 500 record shops around the country. As a result, Schultz said, NVA’s sales volume has dropped by 50% from its 1989 level of $750,000.

Schultz maintained NVA’s imports are legal and the seizures are part of a campaign orchestrated by the RIAA to shut down small importers like NVA. “I feel strongly that this is an attempt by the record industry to keep smaller competitors out of business,” said Schultz.

NVA’s suit also named four Customs officials as defendants, and sought an injunction against further seizures of its shipments and unspecified monetary damages. But the suit was dismissed because Customs officials can’t be individually held liable for damages, and the complaint didn’t meet requirements that would have allowed NVA to sue the federal government for monetary damages, said George Wu, an assistant U.S. attorney in Los Angeles who represents the Customs Service.

Wu declined to comment on NVA’s charges. But he said Customs officials have the right to seize imported goods when they suspect the goods are not in compliance with U.S. copyright laws.

David Liebowitz, general counsel for the RIAA, said the allegations by NVA “are without merit.” Although the association has an active anti-piracy program, “there’s certainly no conspiracy” to drive NVA out of business, he said.

NVA was founded in 1987 by Schultz, a former business consultant, and his wife Lisa, a musician.