European antitrust authorities have imposed a series of fines against producers of cathode-ray tube (CRT) televisions and computer displays for "cartel" activity, amounting to 1.47 billion euros ($1.92 bn) in total.
The companies were charged under EU antitrust and competition law with fixing prices in the CRT television market – which were gradually replaced by alternative technologies such as liquid-crystal display (LCD) and plasma displays – for a decade ending in 2006.
In a statement, the European Commission said the companies artificially "fixed prices, shared markets, allocated customers between themselves and restricted their output," for almost ten years at the expense of the consumer. The Commission noted that the cartels "operated worldwide."
The Commission said there were two cartels, defined by the EU as a group of similar, independent companies which join together to fix prices, to limit production or to share markets or customers between them. One cartel concerned with color picture cathode-ray tubes for televisions, while the other focused on computer monitors, the report said.
While Chunghwa, LG Electronics, Philips and Samsung SDI participated in both cartels, Panasonic, Toshiba, MTPD (a Panasonic subsidiary) and Technicolor (formerly known as Thomson) participated only in the cartel for television cathode-ray tubes.
The Commission noted that the companies "were well aware they were breaking the law." In one document discovered during the Commission's inspections, a written warning noted: "Everybody is requested to keep it as secret as it would be serious damage if it is open to customers or European Commission". Some documents even noted: "Please dispose the following document after reading it."
EU authorities noted that the cartel participants were therefore "taking precautions to avoid being in possession of anticompetitive documents."
EU Competition Commissioner Joaquin Almunia, who heads the European antitrust authorities, said the "textbook cartels" showed, "all the worst kinds of anticompetitive behavior that are strictly forbidden to companies doing business in Europe."
