Gizmodo: price fixing

Taiwanese LCD Maker Must Pay $220 Million for Price-Fixing Conspiracy

Dan Nosowitz — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 23:15:00 EST

Chi Mei Optoelectronics, a major LCD maker who sells to companies including Apple, HP and Dell, has admitted to a wide-scale price fixing conspiracy between late 2001 and late 2006. The details are being kept under wraps, but Chi Mei has pled guilty to the charges in a San Francisco court, and in addition to the monetary penalty, nine executives are also under investigation. [FBI]

AT&T Sues the Pants Off of Price-Fixing LCD Manufacturers

John Herrman — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 12:39:11 EDT

AT&T and the LCD industry make for strange courtfellows, but wait'll you hear what for: AT&T claims that due to LCD price fixing by LG, Sharp and other, they've overpaid for 300 million handsets. Interestingly, they're not thrilled about this.

Between a general leeriness towards AT&T and spectacularly huge numbers involved, the whole thing sounds a little conspiratorial. Thing is, the price-fixing definitely happened:

South Korea's LG Display Co., Sharp Corp. and Chunghwa Picture Tubes Ltd. agreed last November to pay $585 million in criminal fines in a U.S. Justice Department probe of illegally price fixing on LCDs used in flat-screen televisions, cellphones and other devices.

This lawsuit is less about AT&T proving that some of the biggest LCD manufacturers in the world have been gouging them (and in turn, their customers) than it is about getting some kind of compensation for said gouging, which has been driving up prices of phones for quite a while now.

I mean, probably not by more than a few cents apiece, but still! Outrage! As a bonus, this is a rare chance to earnestly root for the Death Star. [WSJ]

LG, Sharp and Chunghwa Fined $585 Million For LCD Price Fixing

Sean Fallon — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 15:05:00 EST

After nearly three years of investigation, LG, Sharp and Chunghwa Picture Tubes Ltd have admitted to participating in a cartel between 2001 and 2006 that fixed prices of LCD screens affecting "millions of American consumers who use computers, cell phones and numerous other household electronics every day." The Justice Department has ordered the companies pony up $580 million in fines—$400 million from LG, $120 million from Sharp and $65 million from Chunghwa.

According to the Justice Department, these price fixing schemes specifically targeted TFT-LCD panels sold to Dell for their computers, Motorola for the Razr and Apple for the iPod. So, by screwing them they screwed us all. I just hope that a portion of that cash is headed my way for the five or six iPods I have purchased over the years. [Broadcasting and Cable]

LCD Price Fixing?

Mark Wilson — Sat, 16 Dec 2006 09:45:55 EST

This week US, Japan and South Korea have teamed up to investigate possible price fixing between major LCD manufacturers.

The companies subject to investigation include Sharp, Samsung, and LG Philips/Philips. Of course, this would be a recent strike two against Samsung - right after we forgave them for the whole memory fiasco. Very not cool (if it's true). – Mark Wilson

US Investigates LCD Makers [japantoday]

Samsung Nailed for Price Fixing

Noah R — Thu, 13 Oct 2005 14:05:10 EDT

Samsung is out $300 million to federal regulators—the second largest criminal antitrust fine in history—stemming from an investigation that began in 2002. The chip-maker was caught conspiring via e-mail, telephone and face-to-face conversations discussing fixing the price of memory chips starting back in April of 1999.

The government said the victims of the alleged price-fixing were Dell Inc., Compaq Computer Corp., Hewlett-Packard Co., Apple Computer Inc., International Business Machines Corp., and Gateway Inc.

Samsung To Pay $300M for Price Fixing [CNBC]