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$860 Million In Fines Handed Out For LCD Price-Fixing
eldavojohn writes "Six companies have pleaded guilty to worldwide price fixing of Thin-Film Transistor Liquid Crystal Displays from Sept. 14, 2001, to Dec. 1, 2006. For violating the Sherman Act, the companies have agreed to pay criminal fines of over $860 Million. In addition, nine executives have been charged in the scandal. The pricing scam affected some of the largest companies at the time, including Apple, HP and Dell. (If you bought a TFT-LCD from them in that time frame, you may be one of the victimized consumers.) From the DOJ release, 'According to the charge, Chi Mei carried out the conspiracy by agreeing during meetings, conversations and communications to charge prices of TFT-LCD panels at certain pre-determined levels and issuing price quotations in accordance with the agreements reached. As a part of the conspiracy, Chi Mei exchanged information on sales of TFT-LCD panels for the purpose of monitoring and enforcing adherence to the agreed-upon prices.'"
so what exactly happened? the article is long on confusion and short on explanations.
Someone got really greedy. Someone else caught them and is now going to use that fact to advance their political career. Some stockholders will suffer and a handful of executives will spend a few years in white collar resort prison.
I want peace on earth and goodwill toward man.
We are the United States Government! We don't do that sort of thing.
You forgot the part where the wronged consumers get justice in the form of a $2 class action settlement check.
A little addendum: the final fine may vary from the stated amount. According to the document, the maximum fine may be increased to twice the amount illegally gained by the company or twice the amount of loss suffered by the victims. While 860 million USD seems a bit low, I expect the final number to be higher. (Or the given number could be a sort of "plea bargain" amount. I'm not sure.)
(((dB)))
You forgot the part where the wronged consumers get justice in the form of a $2 class action settlement check.
YOU forgot the part where the wronged consumers get a coupon worth $2 off on their next purchase as their settlement.
Well let's see. The Taiwanese LCD producer Chi Mei Optoelectronics (CMO) agreed to pay $220 million for violations over 5 years (2001-2006) which comes up to $44 million per year of violations.
CMO is a publicly traded company, for 2009 their net sales up to November has been almost $30 billion dollars.
CMO's market cap is $150 billion dollars.
I think it's safe to say that $44 million dollars a year is a drop in the bucket for them.
The other $640 million is divided across 5 other companies so far, which sets them about $128 million dollars each, or $25.6 million dollars a year.
Justice is served!
If you can't mod them join them.
Guess who is going to pay the $860 million. Don't look forward to cheaper LCD prices anytime soon.
Only the State obtains its revenue by coercion. - Murray Rothbard
This is what real conspiracies look like. Note the distinct lack of "CIA", "Masons", "NSA" or other such favorites.
This article is of course for the criminal action and not any civil suits. Naturally, there is a proposed class action in the US for those who were victimized:
http://www.lieffcabraser.com/antitrust/lcd-antitrust.htm
The suit is for:
All persons and entities who, between January 1, 1996 and December 11, 2006, directly purchased a TFT-LCD Product in the United States from any defendant or any subsidiary or affiliate thereof, or any co-conspirator. Excluded from the Class are defendants, their parent companies, subsidiaries and affiliates, any co-conspirators, all governmental entities, and any judges or justices assigned to hear any aspect of this action.
From what it says the motion to dismiss based on lack of evidence has been thrown out. Will they settle? Will their lawyers eventually be able to squish it like a little bug? What will the payout be? That's anybody's guess. Might be worth getting on board if you were a firm that bought a ton of LCDs in that time though... I would imagine that if there was a payout, it would be per infraction rather than per customer, right? I admit that this is well outside my area of expertise.
You mean one with conjugal visits?
Conjugal visits? Mmmm. Not that I know of. Y'know, minimum-security prison is no picnic. I have a client in there right now. He says the trick is: kick someone's ass the first day, or become someone's bitch. Then everything will be all right. W-Why do you ask, anyway?
*150 billion new Taiwan dollards equals about 4 billion dollars
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Taiwan_dollar