Sharp Settles with Dell and Others in Price-fixing Suit

By Douglas Perry
published

Dell has received $198.5 million from Sharp as a settlement in a price-fixing lawsuit.

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.

17 Comments Comment from the forums
  • AznCracker
    Wait did we get a share of this?
    Reply
  • Chipi
    Yeah, check under the carpet...
    Reply
  • lunyone
    I think they should force them to sell at cost for the next year and that might minimize this kind of behavior (but I'm not betting on it).
    Reply
  • molo9000
    "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,"
    That's a lot of words for "yes, we did it"
    Reply
  • lexx691
    Funny how the system works...

    Producers engage in (illegal) price fixing.
    This keeps prices high, yet the Distributors (Dell) still receiver their proper margin, the buyer (you and me) are the ones who pay the high prices.
    Some time later the whole thing becomes public, and Dell receives money.

    Legally the whole affair is settled.

    Technically, you and me paid 200m$ to Dell.
    Reply
  • kartu
    I wonder how such offend could be settled by paying a private company.
    In my books fine should be payed to the governments.

    PS
    I guess it happens all the time in many industries. Just look at motherboard prices now and back in 2005.
    Reply
  • Kami3k
    kartuI wonder how such offend could be settled by paying a private company.In my books fine should be payed to the governments.
    They generally are, Intel being a big example.
    Reply
  • baddad
    They should be excluded from the US market for a year so they know not to do in the future.
    Reply
  • rantoc
    When this kind of *** happens, what about the consumers that paid more? I think company that rig prices should be forced to pay fine's as well as having their entire price portfolio forced to a certain price - say cost +10% for at least a year for instance - If they die so be it, they after all broke the law and screwed everyone over and then had to serve the ones they screwed!
    Reply
  • Razec69
    demarestYour epidermis is showing. If the cost of fighting is greater than the cost of settling, you settle. Guilt or lack thereof doesn't even enter into it, nor can it be extracted from the act of settling alone. Your presumption is that everybody that makes an accusation is by default correct.
    No you moron, but for the simple fact that this isn't the first time, it obvious that they are paying because they know they are guilty. YET AGAIN. Now tuck your tail between your legs, and go to your little pompous corner.
    Reply