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Hitachi Displays, a subsidiary of Japanese electronics titan Hitachi Ltd., is to be hit with a substantial financial penalty following its part in a high-profile LCD price-fixing scam involving the sale of panel units to manufacturing heavyweights such as Dell Inc., Apple Inc., and Motorola Inc.
Hitachi loses some of its shine following $31 million USD fine. Image: Leonid Mamchenkov/Flickr.
According to the U.S. Department of Justice (DoJ), Tokyo-based Hitachi will enter a plea of guilty in answer to the charges lodged against it, which will result in the issuing of a $31 million USD fine.
According to a felony charge filed at the U.S. District Court in San Francisco, Hitachi Displays, and other unnamed co-conspirators, have been charged with illegally setting the fixed prices of thin film transistor (TFT) liquid crystal display (LCD) panels from April 01 of 2001 through to March 31 of 2004.
As a condition of the guilty plea, Hitachi Displays will be required to assist the Department of Justice in its ongoing investigation into related antitrust activities in the technology industry.
Hitachi’s guilty plea marks it as the fourth tech player to do so during the price-fixing investigation, which has already struck LG Display, Chunghwa Picture Tubes and Sharp Corp., all of which entered a guilty plea in November of 2008 and agreed to shoulder a collective fine of $585 million USD.
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