European Commission Fines Samsung, Philips, Panasonic, Toshiba And Three Others A Total Of $1.92 Billion Over Price Fixing

Posted on Dec 6 2012 - 5:22am by Editorial Staff

A one of the major heft fined has been incurred on seven biggie electronic companies by European Commission (EC) a total of €1.47 billion ($1.92 billion). The seven companies includes Samsung, Philips, Panasonic, Toshiba and three others for participating one or two cartels on restricting the pricing of CRT TVs and computer monitors between 1996 and 2006. Chunghwa, LG Electronics, Philips and Samsung SDI participated in both cartels, while Panasonic, Toshiba, MTPD (currently a Panasonic subsidiary) and Technicolor (formerly Thomson) participated only in the cartel for television tubes.

Commenting on the ruling, EC VP Joaquín Almunia said: “These cartels for cathode ray tubes are ‘textbook cartels’: they feature all the worst kinds of anticompetitive behaviour that are strictly forbidden to companies doing business in Europe. Cathode ray tubes were a very important component in the making of television and computer screens. They accounted for 50 to 70% of the price of a screen. This gives an indication of the serious harm this illegal behaviour has caused both to television and computer screen producers in the EEA, and ultimately the harm it caused to the European consumers over the years.”

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