Brussels, 05/12/2012 (Agence Europe) - On 5 December, the European Commission levied record fines of €1.47 billion - the highest yet - on seven international electronics companies for their decade-long involvement in one or two global cartels in cathode ray tubes for colour televisions and computer monitors.
From 1996 to 2006, Chunghwa, Samsung SDI, Philips, LG Electronics, Technicolor (ex-Thomson), Panasonic, Toshiba and MTPD (now a subsidiary of Panasonic) agreed on prices and the distribution of markets and customers and restrictions on their manufacture of cathode ray tubes for televisions. The first four companies listed were involved in both cartels.
Top management level meetings, dubbed “green(s) meetings” by the cartelists themselves because they were often followed by a golf game, designed the orientations for the two cartels. Preparation and implementation were carried out through lower level meetings, often referred to as “glass meetings”, on a quarterly, monthly, sometimes even weekly basis in various locations in Asia and Europe. The cartels operated worldwide and enabled the companies to set and maintain high prices and protect the cathode ray tube TV market by slowing the transition to flat and LCD screens.
In setting the fines, the Commission took into account the companies' sales of the products concerned in the EEA, the very serious nature of the infringement, its geographic scope, its implementation and its duration, fining the first cartel a total of €1.14 billion (TV tubes) and €3.28 billion in total for the second cartel (computer monitor tubes). Chunghwa was given full immunity for informing the Commission about the cartel, but Philips has to pay a total of €313 million for its involvement in both cartels, and a further fine of €392 million to be paid in combination with LG Electronics. Philips was granted a 30% reduction, and Samsung a 40% reduction of its €151 million fine for their cooperation under the Commission's leniency programme. Technicolor was granted a 10% reduction on its €39 million fine because of its inability to pay the fine due to its poor financial health. The cartel is also under investigation in South Korea, Japan and the United States. (FG/transl.fl)