LCD Manufacturers Sued by Nokia
|
Thursday, 03 December 2009 10:14 |
|
| | |
 One of the world’s largest maker of mobile phones, Nokia Oyj, sued Samsung Electronics Co., LG Display Co., AU Optronics Corp. and some other manufacturers of lcd's saying they colluded to fix prices.
Filed Nov. 25 in federal court in San Francisco, the lawsuit is built on federal and state antitrust claims. It sustains arguments AT&T Inc. made in another suit filed last month in the same court against lcd manufacturers.
Nokia is accusing the world’s biggest maker of liquid- crystal displays, Samsung, and other display makers of illegal agreement in order to raise the price of displays above the level in a competitive market. Nokia claims unspecified damages and an order to stop this agreement.
The complaint stated: “The liquid-crystal displays were incorporated into Nokia mobile wireless handsets.” This agreement “artificially inflated the price of liquid crystal displays ultimately incorporated into LCD products purchased by Nokia, causing Nokia to pay higher prices.”
These lawsuits cite and rely on a U.S. Justice Department investigation of display panel price-fixing. A unit of Japan’s Hitachi Ltd., Hitachi Displays Ltd., was the fourth company to plead guilty in the inquiry in March this year, and was named as a defendant in Nokia’s suit but not in the case brought by AT&T.
The world’s second-largest liquid-crystal- display maker, LG Display, Chunghwa Picture Tubes and Sharp Corp., who were named in both cases, agreed to plead guilty in November to the U.S. claims and pay $585 million in criminal fines.
In the U.K.’s High Court also has been filled a similar lawsuit by Nokia.
|
|
