Large computer maker Dell has filed suit against five Asian tech companies this week, alleging that all five colluded as a cartel to overcharge for LCD panels.
The suit is against large manufacturers Sharp, Hitachi, Toshiba, Seiko Epson and HannStar Display and was filed in San Francisco.
The complaint notes that Dell is taking action “on behalf of itself and its affiliates to recover for antitrust and other harms arising from billions of dollars of purchases at artificially inflated prices, over several years, of thin film transistor-liquid crystal display panels, or products containing TFT-LCD panels.”
Dell goes as far as to say that the LCD price fixing has been in effect since 1996.
In the past, Sharp was accused and pleaded guilty to price fixing, agreeing to pay a $120 million fine.
Result for: liquid crystal display
Nokia has filed lawsuits this week against major CRT and LCD makers, alleging price fixing.
The companies, or their subsidiaries, named in the suits are AU Optronics, Hitachi, LG Electronics, Philips Electronics, Samsung Electronics, Seiko Epson, Sharp and Toshiba.
“The investigations are into alleged cartel activities, effectively price fixing, in the supply of both CRTs (cathode ray tubes) and LCDs (liquid crystal display) — components that we have bought in significant volumes over a number of years. Had we not been overcharged for them our profitability would have been higher,” says Nokia spokesman Mark Durrant.
Durrant did not disclose how much Nokia was seeking in monetary damages, but did say they were “not insignificant.”
Result for: liquid crystal display
Suppliers of Liquid-crystal Display (LCD) components have witnessed a decline in sales during October. The decrease is what was expected with an industry-wide downturn which has forced panel makers to cut back productions. After consolidated sales of NT$3.38 billion (US$102.9 million) in September this year, backlight unit (BLU) maker Radiant Opto-Electronics reported a 10% drop in October and a 13.66% on year to NT$3.01 billion.
Radiant did report that its LED BLU shipments to the notebook/netbook segment grew sequentially in October, with LED BLU shipments to large-size notebooks reaching 463,000 units last month. The figure is up from 351,000 units in September. Shipments to medium-size netbooks grew slightly from 687,000 in September to 690,000 in October.
Wah Hong Industrial, an Optical film supplier reported an 17.26% rise in consolidated sales to NT$617 million back in September, and then suffered a decline of 15.7% in consolidated revenues to NT$520 million in October. Wellypower Optronics, a cold cathode fluorescent lamp (CCFL) maker announced that its October consolidated revenues fell 16.5% sequentially and 43.1% on year to NT$423 million.
Wellypower said shipments to the LCD TV segment accounted for 29% of total shipments for October.
