Dell had sued Sharp, Hitachi, Toshiba, HannStar, and Seiko in March of 2010 and accused the companies of collusion that kept prices of TFT LCD products high. Today Sharp announced a settlement with Dell and two other unnamed companies amounting to nearly $200 million, however, there was no further information on the settlement agreement.
"After carefully taking into consideration the applicable US laws, the facts of the case, and other factors, Sharp has decided that the best possible course of action is to resolve these lawsuits by settlement," the firm said in a statement.
Price-fixing claims, settlements and convictions are rather common in the display industry. Hitachi Displays, LG, Sharp, and Chunghwa Picture Tubes paid $585 million in 2010 to cover damages in a price fixing case that affected, among others, Dell, Apple, and Motorola. Last December, Sharp, Samsung, and Hitachi had to shell out $553 million in a New-York based price-fixing case. And, just last week, Toshiba was ordered to pay $87 million following a ruling that it fixed display prices for TVs.