AfterDawn: News

Hitachi, LG plead guilty to price fixing scheme

Hitachi and LG's joint venture has pleaded guilty to price fixing scheme and will pay a $21.1 million fine.

The price fixing and bid-rigging came with the sale of optical disk drives, said the U.S. Justice Department.



Dubbed Hitachi-LG Data Storage, the joint company was accused of 15 counts of conspiracy and wire fraud.

In 2009, Hitachi-LG, Sony, Toshiba and others all received subpoenas from the DOJ in a probe on their sales of disk drives. Said Sharis Pozen, acting head of the Justice Department's antitrust division, at the time: "The bid-rigging and price-fixing conspiracies involving optical disk drives undermined competition and innovation in the high tech industry."

In the plea agreement, the company has agreed to assist the ongoing investigation and work on internal compliance.

Written by: Andre Yoskowitz @ 2 Oct 2011 0:04

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• 2 comments

• FreddyF

  What a joke. The fine should be 10 times revenue from the scheme. This fine is so low, the paople involved will probably get huge bonuses for pulling this off and making billions for stockholders. They might put someone into a generous retirement to tke the blame. Happens all the time, corrupd politicians making great headlines, taking bribes, sorry campeign contributions, to settle a problem for pennies on the dollar while the people get screwed. Thanks guys!
  
  
  

  2.10.2011 07:43 #1

• LordRuss

  I'm a bit confused... (like that's new) did this have something to do with the whole bluray revolution & a price fixing involving the technology following that or the fact that the public as a whole is still paying $20+ buck for a DVD released movie despite the bloated pricing bluray & the obvious impact it already has made. We also know that the pricing involved has brought manufacturing costs down exponentially, therefore meriting the cost for a $20 bluray movie that couldn't make it as a $5 DVD simply don't cut it either.
  
  So again I ask, what market were they fixing? Because I may feel inclined to take my standalone LG bluray player back & get the Samsung.
  

  http://onlyinrussellsworld.blogspot.com

  2.10.2011 14:50 #2