Tech Data shines light on LCD price fixing

Distributor accuses LCD vendors of decade-long price fixing

Distribution giant Tech Data has filed a lawsuit in the US, accusing a slew of LCD vendors of conspiring to fix product prices for more than a decade.

The document, filed at a federal court in Florida at the end of last month, claims the vendors formed an "international cartel" to unlawfully "fix, raise and maintain prices" between January 1996 and December 2006.

The manufacturers named in the document include Sharp, Epson, Sanyo, Samsung, LG, NEC, Hitachi and Toshiba.

"The conspiracy resulted in unusually long periods of high prices and profits," states the lawsuit. "As a result of the [this] unlawful conduct, plaintiffs [Tech Data] paid higher prices for LCD products than they would have paid in a competitive market."

Tech Data said the purpose of the lawsuit is to seek injunctive relief, as well as recover the overcharges it claims to have paid as a result of the manufacturers' actions.

The document confirms that several of the defendants (LG, Epson and Hitachi) have previously admitted to taking part in price fixing, and collectively paid out hundreds of millions of dollars in damages as a result.

It also states that the US Department of Justice is still in the throes of investigating another manufacturer listed in the suit, AU Optonics, for conspiring to fix LCD prices.