HP Sues Over LCD Price Fixing

angry tapir writes "Hewlett-Packard has filed a complaint against display manufacturers Chunghwa Picture Tubes and Tatung Company of America, seeking to recover damages it claims it suffered as a result of their involvement in a price fixing scheme. In November 2008, Chunghwa pleaded guilty to participating in a conspiracy together with other display manufacturers, including LG Display and Sharp, to set the prices of Thin-Film Transistor-Liquid Crystal Display (TFT-LCD) panels to predetermined levels. The company agreed to pay a US$65 million criminal fine at the time. A jury found AU Optronics, another display manufacturer, guilty of participating in the same conspiracy and was fined US$500 million in September by a judge of the U.S District Court for the Northern District of California. In October last year, 10 LCD makers, including Chunghwa Picture Tubes, were fined $176 million in South Korea for allegedly holding secret meetings to keep the prices for flat screen displays artificially high."

Comments

That's nice

[formfeed]

Because if they win, they'll for sure pass it on to their customers.

Re:That's nice

[Deflatamouse]

There should be a fine against the lawyers holding a secret meeting to artificially create legal events that require the service of lawyers. But then we'll need meta-lawyers!

Re:That's nice

[roc97007]

Right, because HP plays so fair with customers over the printer ink issue...

Re:That's nice

[hairyfeet]

They are just trying to cover for the fact the board spent billions more for recent purchases than they were worth, no different than their claims that there was cooked books on their last buy...yeah, 5.5 BILLION in cooked books, sure, uh huh, really buy that.

They are trying to CYA because while they have gone through CEOs like crap through a goose Whitman and the rest of the board were there too and rubber stamped all those crazy buys, even with everybody pointing out they were paying several times what the companies were worth even in the most optimistic outlook. So expect to see more lawsuits and accusations in the coming months as they probably have another 8-10 billion they are gonna have to write off and the board don't want to take the blame they rightfully deserve.

Did these companies overcharge HP? Oh I have no doubt, but considering how many billions they have pissed away the past few years its like pointing at a guy with a match and saying "Its HIS fault!" while the board is taking flamethrowers to the corporate headquarters. hey! Maybe they can pay Nokia several times what its worth for their HQ? Would fit right in with the rest of their lamebrained purchases of late.

Re:That's nice

[Defenestrar]

But companies C, D, and E (all competitors to A) benefit from the broken price fixing imposed by B (and it's allies) and will wipe the floor with A unless enough damages are awarded to compensate A for the additional expenses. Breaking an artificial monopoly is a noble thing, but my no means a sure bet financially.

Re:This shouldn't come as any sort of surprise.

[aliquis]

Over here the prices has fallen to like a 1/10th. Or less. So I don't get what you're saying.

Don't you mean flat panel display?

[petman]

I know 'flat screen' is now commonly used in place of 'flat panel', but come on, this is Slashdot, we should be the elites when it comes to technology, and we should know better to use the more accurate term compared to common folks. I have a CRT television that at the time of purchase, was advertised as a 'flat screen TV' because it has a flat rather than a convex screen surface. I also used to have a 'flat screen monitor', which was a CRT with a flat screen surface.

Re:This shouldn't come as any sort of surprise.

[Deflatamouse]

Where have you been?

15" 1024x768 TFT LCD screens used to cost $300+ circa 2004.

I'm typing this message on a 27" 2560x1440 S-IPS LED LCD screen that also costs $300 from South Korea. (It's a bit of an exception, but it was still obtainable here from the U.S.)

Re:Confused

[purpledinoz]

Because corporations aren't people, you can't throw them in jail! Oh wait... wasn't it decided that corporations are people?

Re:Chunghwa Picture Tubes!

[jones_supa]

I also found it a bit awkward when Samsung carried the "SyncMaster" brand name from their CRTs to LCDs. When I'm getting a LCD, I'm not exactly pondering whether it will sync perfectly to various display modes.

Re:This shouldn't come as any sort of surprise.

[Smauler]

With technology which is evolving quickly, it's very difficult to pin price fixing schemes on anyone - the moment you find collaboration, the next best thing is already there, and everyone has moved on. I personally do not think that schemes like these are that important to Western consumers - I'm much more worried by contracts purported as being free for a few months that users cannot get out of, with an up front bribe.

Re:Confused

[PhrstBrn]

Punishing them financially doesn't do anything. They price fix, make a bunch of money, get fined, then have to bump the prices up anyways to pay off the fines. Either way, the customer is screwed with higher prices (at first for price fixing, secondly to pay the fines), the company ends up fine. If you fine the executives, they give themselves a pay bump to pay off the fines, and then pass the cost to the consumer.

If executives actually went to jail for criminal activities, they might think twice before engaging in the first place. No amount of monetary damages will fix the problem.