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AT&T sues Samsung, others in LCD price-fixing conspiracy
AT&T has reportedly filed suit in San Francisco today against several major manufacturers of cell phone LCD screens, accusing them of a price-fixing conspiracy. The carrier says Samsung, LG, Chunghwa, AU Optronics and others consorted to artificially jack up prices on LCD displays. AT&T says it purchased some 300 million cell phones at exaggerated prices from companies involved in the scheme.
More specifically, AT&T claims that Samsung and six other display makers "formed an international cartel illegally to restrict competition in the United States in the market for LCD panels." If true, AT&T has quite a case -- 300 million handsets is many times the carrier's entire subscriber base. It wouldn't be too much of a surprise either, as Hitachi, LG, Chunghwa and Sharp have all been nailed in previous LCD price-fixing schemes -- and the latter three pleaded guilty in November, paying more than half a billion in criminal fines.
More specifically, AT&T claims that Samsung and six other display makers "formed an international cartel illegally to restrict competition in the United States in the market for LCD panels." If true, AT&T has quite a case -- 300 million handsets is many times the carrier's entire subscriber base. It wouldn't be too much of a surprise either, as Hitachi, LG, Chunghwa and Sharp have all been nailed in previous LCD price-fixing schemes -- and the latter three pleaded guilty in November, paying more than half a billion in criminal fines.
User Comments (5)
Post a comment| tengeta on October 21, 2009 4:35 PM | AT&T complaining about price fixing... Whats next, paroled murderers complaining about the violence in our world? |
| Brewskie on October 21, 2009 7:23 PM | Wasn't AT&T formally called IT&T and broken up under
anti-trust, only to reacquire all the separate parts to what
it was before the breakup? AT&T better watch out throw rocks from a house made of glass. |
| Guest on October 21, 2009 9:51 PM | A the consumer will not see a dime either way the wind blows. Continually screwing us over with contracts and artificially high cell phone prices, contracts, plans, etc. |
| Guest on October 22, 2009 8:07 AM | AT&T is the worst American Corpration. They hate their own
customers. If anybody should be sued for price fixing its
the thrree big wireless carriers in the U.S. Three companies
for over 300 million people is an absolute
monpoly. AT&T needs to broken up and even though they have immunity for piping their own customers phone converations straight to the NSA ther executives should be jailed for treason. |
| Nirkon on October 23, 2009 8:56 AM | Consumer gets screwed in the end anyhow... but if the consumer doesn't get anything then at least let there be justice. |
