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HP Sues Seven Optical Drive Makers Over Price-Fixing

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the level-playing-field dept.

Lucas123 writes "HP has filed a lawsuit against seven makers of optical disk drive technology, claiming the companies engaged in widespread price fixing in order to drive up the cost of Blu-ray, DVD and CD drives for PC and peripheral equipment makers. The suit was filed Thursday at the district court in Houston against Toshiba, Samsung, Sony, Panasonic, NEC, TEAC and Quanta Storage. The lawsuit claims the conspiracy to drive up prices took place from at least Jan. 1, 2004 through Jan. 1, 2010, when "almost all forms of home entertainment and data storage were on optical discs" and the companies controlled 90% of the optical disk market. HP alleges the companies used industry events, such as CES, as cover to communicate competitive information and hammer out anticompetitive agreements."

5 of 91 comments (clear)

  1. Re:oh look by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Informative

    The 405nm blue lasers in Blu-ray drives were covered by Nichia patents until the expired recently, and Nichia does sue to protect it's patents. Single source, patent-protected lasers were part of the reason it took so long for the prices to drop.

  2. Re:oh look by Notabadguy · · Score: 5, Informative

    FTFA:

    There was already a criminal investigation and the folks HP is suing pled guilty in a plea deal. Now HP is making the equivalent of a civil case.

    American legal systems allow civil suits to follow criminal suits. And the defenders were already found criminally guilty, although they pled to some unknown settlement.

  3. Re:LITEON not good enough for you? by ravenscar · · Score: 3, Informative

    $150 or more? I picked up an ASUS from Newegg around 6 months ago for $35 or so. It's an internal model and has SATA connections. It works great and appears to be as high quality as my other ASUS gear (I've found their components to be very reliable). The software needed to play a Blu-Ray movie was much more expensive than the drive itself.

  4. Re:oh look by msauve · · Score: 3, Informative

    Replying to myself, because on further review, HP does still make optical drives. You can get an HP CD-R/DVD-R from Newegg for ~$100, comparable to ones from other manufacturers which cost $20.

    And HP is saying the competition is overpriced? WTF?

    Or do they just badge engineer theirs these days, and the ~5x markup isn't enough for them?

    --
    "National Security is the chief cause of national insecurity." - Celine's First Law
  5. Re:oh look by msauve · · Score: 3, Informative

    You sure showed me. They were $22, with free shipping, in 2009.

    --
    "National Security is the chief cause of national insecurity." - Celine's First Law