Such shameful conduct! It looks like from 2001 to 2006, LG, Sharp, and Chinese OEM Chunghwa were conspiring to keep the prices of LCD screens high and agreed on pricing floors to guarantee cash flow for everybody involved.
Over five years of first- and second-party sales (Dell and Apple were among the buyers), they must have run up quite a tab, although no one’s done the math yet. The companies have, however, been served with fines totalling $585 million between them ($400m from LG alone) — which amount, large as it appears, they can most certainly afford. Their reputation and business relationships may have been damaged severely by the legal proceedings, and perhaps in the coming OLED revolution, big retailers of LCDs may snub the companies, even though it’s likely every other supplier has similar predatory policies.
