Toshiba announces settlement for LCD Price fixing incident in the USA

Toshiba found itself in a bit of a sticky situation when it was held to a class action lawsuit in the USA accused of LCD display price fixing. The initial judgement on July the 3rd 2012 ruled against Toshiba stating they had to pay $87 million in damages.

However, Toshiba appears to have made a quick back door exit from the case by settling the dispute out of court to save its own skin. Toshiba agreed a $30 million settlement with the plaintiffs which is subject to approval by the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California (San Francisco). In return for the $30 settlement the plaintiffs will “relinquish all claims for damages, fees, costs and other relief” or in other words drop the case completely.

Toshiba could have taken the initial verdict to an appeal to try and have it overturned, but the fact they’ve settled out of court means they probably had their doubts about whether their appeal would have been successful. Toshiba has stated it has done nothing illegal and it admits no wrongdoing whatsoever.

Toshiba’s reluctance to proceed with an appeal suggests their guilt in the case, but their money has bought them an easy, and possibly untruthful, escape. Toshiba will not revise its financial outlook in the light of this settlement, as by any standards they’ve got off really lightly here.

Source: Press Release