EU fines 6 companies 1.47 Billion Euros for CRT Monitor and TV Price Fixing

Just after the FBI released the updates about LCD price fixing that was being investigated, The European Commission had imposed the biggest antitrust penalty of a total of 1.47 Billion Euros combined within 6 companies including Philips, L.G. Electronics and Samsung.

The commission revealed that executives from the European and Asian companies had met 6 years ago to fix Computers’ CRT monitors which were then replaced by LCD panels.

Within 1996 and 2006, the executives met in Paris, Rome, Amsterdam and Asia with the excuse that they were playing golf together.

The largest find was imposed on Phillips with the amount of 313.4 Million Euros, followed by L.G. who needs to cough up 295.6 Million Euros. The EU also labelled them as “Cartels” and said that they feature the worst kind of anti-competitive behaviour that was forbidden in Europe.

This incident came to light when a Taiwanese firm called Chunghwa Picture Tubes, revealed that the “cartels” price fixing for computer screens and TVs left them trying to escape the fine. Two years ago, Chunghwa Picture Tubes, Samsung Electronics, LG and 3 other LCD companies were penalised a total of 648 Milion Euros for being a part of this cartel.

Phillips did say that they would make provisions to pay the fine, but they also said that the company will challenge the disproportionate and unjustified penalty.

The series of antitrust violations does make you wonder just how many companies maybe involved, not just for displays, but for any tech. At the end of the day, it’s the consumers who get affected.

Source: Reuters