HP Sues Seven Optical Drive Makers Over Price-Fixing

Posted by ryuzaki0 on Monday October 28, 2013 @10:15AM 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."

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Re:oh look by locopuyo · 2013-10-28 10:22 · Score: 5, Insightful

It could still be legit though. Weren't a lot of those listed companies found guilty of price fixing CRT displays?
It seems suspicious that optical drives are so expensive despite being such old technology.

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Re:oh look by Notabadguy · 2013-10-28 11:00 · 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.