EPSON PLEADS GUILTY TO PRICE-FIXING TO PAY $ 26Mln FINE

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Epson pleads guilty to price-fixing,to pay $26M. fine

WASHINGTON
— Japanese electronics manufacturer Epson Imaging Devices Corp. has
agreed to plead guilty and pay a 26-million-dollar fine for its role in
a price-fixing conspiracy, the US Justice Department said Tuesday.
Epson,
a subsidiary of Seiko Epson Corp., conspired to fix prices in the sale
of Thin Film Transistor-Liquid Crystal Display panels sold to US
company Motorola Inc for use in Razr mobile phones from the fall of
2005 to the middle of 2006, the department said in a statement.TFT-LCD
panels are used in computer monitors, notebooks, televisions, mobile
phones and other electronic devices.The department said a one-count
felony charge was filed against Epson on Tuesday in US District Court
in San Francisco.

Epson’s plea agreement is subject to court approval.
As
part of the agreement Epson has agreed to cooperate with its ongoing
investigation into price-fixing by electronics companies from Japan,
South Korea and Taiwan, the department said.Nine Asian electronics
executives have been charged in connection with the probe and the
Justice Department has imposed fines totaling 616 million dollars on
South Korea’s LG Display, Japan’s Sharp Corp., Taiwan’s Chunghwa
Picture Tubes Ltd. and Hitachi Displays Ltd. of Japan.LG Display,
formerly known as LG Philips LCD Co. Ltd, agreed in November to pay a
fine of 400 million dollars. Sharp agreed to pay a 120-million-dollar
fine while Chunghwa was fined 65 million dollars.Hitachi Displays Ltd.
agreed in March to pay a 31-million-dollar fine.The fine levied on LG
Display was the second-largest US antitrust fine after the record 500
million dollars handed down against Swiss pharmaceutical giant F.
Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd. in 1999 for fixing vitamin prices.

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August 28, 2009 at 1:01 PM