Hitachi Fined $31 Million For LCD Price Fixing

MojoKid writes "The Japanese electronics manufacturer has just agreed to pay a staggering $31 million fine for its role in a conspiracy to fix prices in the sale of TFT-LCD panels sold to Dell, Inc. The United States Department of Justice made the proclamation, and details show that Hitachi has plead guilty to a one-count felony. The charge, which was filed in the U.S. District Court in San Francisco, blames Hitachi Displays Ltd., a subsidiary of Hitachi Ltd., with 'participating in a conspiracy to fix the prices of TFT-LCD sold to Dell for use in desktop monitors and notebook computers from April 1, 2001 through March 31, 2004.'"

Comments

How Much?

[Rik Rohl]

did they make more than $31 mil profit by fixing the prices? If they did then they got away with it.

Re:How Much?

[hardburn]

They've also been hit with criminal fines of over $585 million.

Pay $31M, Made $300M

[cc_pirate]

Once again a corporation is allowed to steal and not pay back what it stole...

While an individual would have to pay every DIME back and then pay a penalty on TOP of that...

Pathetic

Re:Pay $31M, Made $300M

[Idiomatick]

To be fair companies are people. Punitive charges don't make as much sense. Charging the people who made the decisions punitive amounts does and I believe they have/will do so. Hurting a company of thousands of employees for the actions of 2~3 people is pretty pointless. The people that made the decision will be replaced so it doesn't matter.

Agreed

[LingNoi]

The Japanese electronics manufacturer has just agreed to pay....

How come when companies break the law they get to "agree" on the punishment?

Re:Staggering

[The Grim Reefer2]

$25 billion in profits last year. Yep, that $31 million fine is staggering.

Citation please? According to http://investing.businessweek.com/businessweek/research/stocks/earnings/earnings.asp?symbol=6581.T

Hitachi's revenue for 2008 was 175B yen or $1.8B. Which is not even the net profit, it's the all monies coming in before expenses. This is no where near $25B in profit.

In fact they made a net profit of 1.5B yen or $129 Million for 2007. $31 million is almost a quarter of their profits for 2007. For 2008(3-08 to 3-09) they are posting a $7.8B loss.

http://retrenchment-blog.breaking.sg/2009/01/hitachi-cuts-7000-jobs-worldwide/

Which Hitachi?

[Jane Q. Public]

Remember, this Hitachi is only a small subsidiary of the bigger Hitachi, and mentioned in TFA.

Rights

[darkpixel2k]

details show that Hitachi has plead guilty to a one-count felony.

Damn. Poor Hitachi. They just lost their right to vote and carry a gun.

Short list

[sjames]

Does anyone know where I can find the short list of corporations that are not convicted felons?

It's odd the way that people who would never in a million years do business with an individual with a felony record (would you buy a house from someone convicted of fraud?) keep on sending their cash to three time loser corporations.

Re:Not Smart

[eln]

You're right. When the economy is bad, we should let corporations get away with breaking any laws or regulations they want to in order to maintain a healthy profit, thereby maintaining jobs. This is especially important when the economy is bad in large part because we let corporations get away with breaking any laws or regulations they wanted to in order to maintain a healthy profit.

$31m Is Small, Not "Staggering"

[meehawl]

In 2005, Samsung paid $300m for price fixing. Hynix paid $185m. Infineon paid $160m, and four of its execs went to prison and paid $250,000 each.

In 2008, LG paid $400m in fines for price fixing. Sharp paid $120m. Chunghwa paid $65m.

So... $35m. In this context, not very "staggering".