LCD price-fixing probe targets LG.Philips, Sharp, Samsung

A number of TFT LCD manufacturers are under investigation by government regulators in Asia and the US for possible price-fixing. LG.Philips was subpoenaed by American, Japanese and Korean authorities on Monday, while Samsung was hit with legal papers on Tuesday. Further, Sharp was "contacted" by the Japan Fair Trade Commission and the US Department of Justice, though it's unclear if that meant it got a subpoena too. But the fun doesn't stop there, reports IDG News Service, with the European Commission now getting in on the act, too -- the EC said that it was trying to "ascertain whether there is evidence of a cartel agreement and related practices concerning price fixing." Of course, this comes hot on the heels of that video card investigation we heard about recently, as well as the RAM price-fixing fiasco that Mitsubishi (and previously Samsung) were involved in. We'll keep you posted if other display makers get swept up into this.

[Via Slashdot]

[jeff Foster @ Dec 12th 2006 6:48PM]

fat-lot of good this'll do consumers...

Like the music industry's price-fixing lawsuits - what did that do? a $4 check in the mail? and how much did CD prices come down? not much, if at all.

I really would like to see LCD panel prices come down, and they have a little, but it seems like ithey should be quite a bit lower by now.

[Joe C @ Dec 12th 2006 10:11PM]

I think the story here is the big names left off that list. Sony, Panasonic, and Hitachi wonder if they had a hand in convincing any of these government agencies to go after their competitors?

[Shadow Lord @ Dec 13th 2006 2:03AM]

Anyone know where I can signup for the class action lawsuit? :) No seriously... I could use some of the money I OVER paid on my LCD so I can over pay on a blueray player... Truth of the matter is its called the "bleeding edge" for a very good reason...

[rj @ Dec 13th 2006 9:59AM]

actually it has more to do with a "skimming pricing strategy" than anything else.

[Rick Lyon @ Dec 13th 2006 12:31PM]

Sony should be charged with price gouging. Nobody buys Hitachi and Panasonic is a decent price for what you get.

I'm mostly surprised to see LG on the list, but I guess they're trying to make what little money they can. I was wondering why LCD prices seemed to have leveled off lately with the huge surge in sales.

[Franssu @ Dec 14th 2006 2:03PM]

Well, they stopped doing CRTs because they had a much larger margin with the LCDs (who are dirt cheap to make and transport compared to CRTs). They just didn't care about the people who really need CRTs (like all serious artists who do really care about color). Fixing prices is of course a necessary point in this consumer-screwing strategy.

[otakucode @ Dec 29th 2006 8:13AM]

LCD price fixing has been obvious to me for a year or so now, and I've posted about it in comments on here, so let me say "I told you so" to all those who told me I was crazy.

Look at the marketplace for LCD panels. Over a billion cellphones. TVs. Computer monitors. Laptop screens. Portable music/video players. Billions and billions and billions of products use LCD panels. LCDs don't require any exotic or hard-to-acquire components. Their manufacturing has been mastered. The truth of the matter is that LCDs are nearly as ubiquitous as paper, and should be priced accordingly. If demand and honest competition were driving the price, devices which incorporate LCDs would be MUCH cheaper than they are. Long before LCDs were ever practicable, it was pretty obvious that the display industry was just about the laziest bunch of slobs on the planet. They stuck with CRTs doing NTSC and PAL for decades and decades with very few significant technological leaps. Well, with the move into LCD they have to accept an entirely different worldview. They're in the domain of rapid product changes and even more rapid price drops. It probably was not entirely unforseeable that they would fight this with back-room deals to keep their prices artificially high.

And when discussing this, don't forget there are very few companies that actually produce LCD panels. Most of the TV manufacturers buy their panels from these companies and then repackage them, that's why it's important to find out what panel a computer monitor or TV uses and not just rely on the brand selling it.