Back in 2009 a lawsuit was filed against no less than seven different manufacturers of LCD monitors over alleged price fixing. In 2011 a court ruled that these companies have to pay $553 million in refunds and legal damages, and Samsung and Sharp were ordered to pay the lion’s share of it.
The latter had to shed out $115.5 million to cover its mischief, and now the Japanese hardware vendor agreed to pay another $198.5 million to Dell and a couple other companies that filed suit against it. It was all a part of an out-of-court agreement.
Here’s some background from Computerworld:
“The company agreed to settle the civil lawsuit, which was first filed in November of 2009 against a group of companies including Sharp, Epson, Hitachi and Toshiba for collusion on prices of LCD panels sold to Dell. A Sharp spokeswoman said the company made the decision independent of the other firms involved in the lawsuit, and the payment would settle the suit with Dell. Sharp did not name the two other companies besides Dell.”
Last week Toshiba was ordered to pay $87 million. It turns out that it was also involved in this LCD ‘conspiracy,’ but a Chinese publication reports that the fine is a theoretical one if anyone. That’s because legislators apparently believe the original $553 million covers all the damages that have been done, the China Post reports.
The scandal extends all the way to South Korea as well, where Samsung and LG were recently ordered to pay a total of 45 billion won for similar activities. That equals about 39 million U.S. dollars, which is a hefty sum but still less than the bill the two firms’ Japanese peer is facing right now.
