Guilty LCD makers to fork over hefty fines for price-fixing
Three Asian electronics firms have agreed to plead guilty and pay US$585 million in fines for conspiring to drive up the prices of LCD screens used in computers, TVs, cellphones and other electronic devices.
In a plea deal filed Wednesday, LG Display, Sharp and Chunghwa Picture Tubes agreed to cooperate in an antitrust investigation headed by the US Justice Department. The plea agreement was filed in federal court in San Francisco.
LCDs, or liquid crystal display monitors, are the glass display screens on many laptop computers, cellphones and new TVs.
The artificially high prices the scheme created hit companies like Motorola, Dell and Apple, and costs were eventually passed on to consumers, according to Assistant Attorney General Thomas O. Barnett.
