Electronista: Hitachi said yesterday that it had pled guilty to rigging the prices of its LCD panels in the US, and agreed to pay a $31 million fine.
The agreement with a US District Court in San Francisco finds that Hitachi held meetings with Dell that illegally set prices for computer LCD displays by agreeing to prices in advance and artificially adjusting the actual quoted prices to match the target.
Hitachi’s move effectively let the company set its own prices independently of the market between April 2001 and March 2004.
While significant, the plea is the latest in a slew of those from southeast Asian firms. Chungwa, LG and Sharp have themselves already paid $585 million in fines for similar activities between 2001 and 2006 that helped keep prices for HDTVs and other displays high.
Hitachi’s punishment is comparatively light, as LG alone was fined $400 million for violating antitrust laws and has seen one of its executives.
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