Seven prominent LCD makers have agreed to pay a fine of $553 million to settle multiple cases relating to claims they conspired together to fix prices for LCD panels found in TVs, notebooks and other monitors from the years 1999 to 2006.
The companies in question are Samsung, Sharp, Hitachi, HannStar Display, Chimei Innolux, Chunghwa Picture Tubes and Espon Imaging Devices. The case began ... [ read the full article ]
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Question: Was it worth it. As far as I'm concerned, these anti-price fixing efforts are only effective if they lose more money as a result of the fines than they gained from the price-fixing...$240 million seems like a lot of money, but I have no idea how much they made from the fixing.
And to think I've just bought myself a Samsung television! Hope they're not price fixing anymore.
Originally posted by Notcow: Question: Was it worth it. As far as I'm concerned, these anti-price fixing efforts are only effective if they lose more money as a result of the fines than they gained from the price-fixing...$240 million seems like a lot of money, but I have no idea how much they made from the fixing.
And to think I've just bought myself a Samsung television! Hope they're not price fixing anymore.
Yes, it was worth it. I don't have all the balance sheets in front of me obviously but the profits were in the billions. I wouldn't be surprised if it was in $4+ billion range. LCD margins were not as constrained back then as they are now.
Originally posted by Notcow: Question: Was it worth it. As far as I'm concerned, these anti-price fixing efforts are only effective if they lose more money as a result of the fines than they gained from the price-fixing...$240 million seems like a lot of money, but I have no idea how much they made from the fixing.
And to think I've just bought myself a Samsung television! Hope they're not price fixing anymore.
Yes, it was worth it. I don't have all the balance sheets in front of me obviously but the profits were in the billions. I wouldn't be surprised if it was in $4+ billion range. LCD margins were not as constrained back then as they are now.
Exactly, this fine is a pittance when split up between these companies. They knew exactly what they were doing, and even if they got caught, the profits outweigh the fine. In the end it will be passed back on to the consumers, defrauding on a corporate scale is the norm.
