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3 Firms Confess To Fixing LCD Prices, Agree To Pay $585M Fine
Oldyeller89 writes "LG, Sharp, and Chunghwa Picture Tubes pleaded guilty to charges of price fixing in violation of the Sherman Antitrust Act. They fixed the prices on LCD screens used not only in their products but also in other products such as Apple's iPods. The three companies agreed to pay $585 million in fines. Perhaps this will cause the price of our TVs to drop?" The New York Times also has a story on the outcome of this case.
I wonder if the price to produce a plasma television is just inherently much higher than LCD if the already generally lower prices on those were being fixed in many cases.
~ I am logged on, therefore I am.
And so, now that we have found out they have fixed prices, we can all feel free to sit with thumbs up our asses about the jacked prices we had to pay to feed companies that agree to pay a fine that is higher than the average amount of money 5 families make in a lifetime.
And $50 says the CEO's won't be taking a dip in their salaries to compensate for the fine; nope, chances are they'll lay off some people and give pay cuts out to everyone that just does their job without trying to find a way to make a quick buck.
Since its a fine imposed by the Justice Department, I would imagine the government gets the money (in part to defray the expense of filing and prosecuting the case).
Irony of irony, the advert displayed below the story was for the new Samsung HD TVs. :)
This space for rent. All reasonable inquiries will be entertained at proprietors discretion.
Does this have anything to do with the ridiculous inability of the laptop LCD screen market to put out 1920x1080 screens?
It's as though they're keeping the market for TV screens expensive by not allowing the format to bleed into laptop realm, wherupon cheap computers become high-quality televisions, killing the TV screen market.
Maybe they should fine the board members instead, and disallow them from receiving bonuses/stock/pay increases for 5 or 10 years. You can't punish companies but you can punish people.
Of course screwing over others shouldn't be a crime if it interferes with corporate profits. Say, how come with all this price fixing, someone else didn't step in and offer LCDs for a lower price? That would have been proof that the free market works. Yet that never, ever seems to happen.
Ahhh, look! There's a 'world's smallest political quiz' link! Spoiler alert: you are a libertarian. I am a libertarian. Everyone who takes that quiz is secretly a libertarian.
If you start off with the assumption that anyone can do whatever the hell they please without regard to the consequences for others, you are a libertarian. If you want civilization without paying for it, you are a libertarian. If you believe that a government set up only to protect property rights can be anything except an oppressive regime designed to protect the rich from the poor, then you are definitely a libertarian. Libertarianism: if you think 'nyah nyah nyah! You're not the boss of me!' is a good philosophy, it might just be for you.
- None can love freedom heartily, but good men; the rest love not freedom, but license. -- John Milton
To shop more intelligently.
I *JUST* swapped out my CRT monitor after 8 years of solid, reliable use. I picked up a used LCD screen from my company for dirt cheap. I was never a beta tester for slow response-rate, burned out pixels and shoddy construction LCD screens.
I realize basic economics tells us, that there is a maximum profit point on the two line graph of units sold vs cost per unit, but dare I say they could have actually LOST money by charging too much, and forcing cheaper consumers out of the market.
meh, their loss.
Hi, I Boris. Hear fix bear, yes?
Normally, in the tech product cycle, as I learned in business school, you'd expect a 40 to 42 inch HDTV set to be running around $399 with rebate down to $350 at this point (1080p), but I'd been puzzled that prices were up to $200 higher than expected.
That explains it.
Mystery solved.
If the price fixing is broken, we should see 40 to 42 inch LCD HDTVs in the 1080p resolution selling for around $300 around Presidents Day 2009.
-- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
Bullet spray in counter strike is directly affected by your frame rate.
The colt and ak just arent the same on 60 fps vs 100 fps.
I pull out the ol 21 inch CRT when i want to play CS. The technology still has its uses, but beyond that I would never go back to a CRT for normal every day use.
Because the people who need it might not be able to afford it.
I understand that a little bit of deprivation is necessary to goad people to participate in the labor market. But the insurance model just won't fly as a true safety-net.
True that. The punishment should have been forfeiture of patent rights. Hit them where it hurts.
So the invisible hand was Adam Smith's belief that an Englishman would buy English products produced in England, or start a manufacturing company in England for English consumers.
That is not what is implied by Adam Smith's statement that you quoted. His statement implies that when a person makes business decisions based on whats best for him or his company, rather than his country, he will likely be benefiting his country in the long term. Conversely, if you make decisions based primarily on what you think is best for your country you will likely not be benefiting you or your country. This is due to the "invisible hand."
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