Toshiba to pay $70mln fine over LCD price fixing

PanARMENIAN.Net - A Northern California jury found Toshiba guilty of conspiring to fix prices of liquid crystal displays, BGR.com reports.

Customers brought a civil lawsuit against the Japanese company and other LCD providers earlier this year alleging anti-competitive practices. While most other defendants settled the case out of court, Toshiba decided to fight the allegations in a San Francisco federal court.

The company will now be forced to return $70 million to consumers who bought various products, and pay $17 million to manufacturers who used its LCD panels.

“There was strong evidence that Toshiba participated in the price-fixing conspiracy through communications with other TFT-LCD manufacturers, and that it received future pricing information from its competitors, shared its own future information, and was aware of its wrongdoing,” stated Bruce L. Simon, co-lead counsel for plaintiffs. “We are grateful for the jury’s service. The jury rejected Toshiba’s claim that it had done nothing wrong, and this is one of the few antitrust class actions ever tried to a successful verdict.”