Brussels, 27/02/2014 (Agence Europe) - On Thursday 27 February, the European General Court reduced the fines imposed on Innolux and LG Display for their participation in a cartel with four other manufacturers on the market for LCD (liquid-crystal display) panels from October 2001 to February 2006, cutting Innolux's fine from €300 million to €288 million, and LG Display's fine from €215 million to €210 million.
For InnoLux (caseT-91/11), the General Court ruled that the company had made errors when it provided the Commission with the data necessary for calculating the value of relevant sales in that it had included sales relating to products other than the LCD panels subject to the cartel and therefore the value of sales used by the Commission in setting the fine was too high. Accordingly, the Court, in the exercise of its unlimited jurisdiction, considers it appropriate to calculate the fine on the basis of the lower, corrected, sales value, even though Innolux was negligent when it provided the Commission with inaccurate data. Applying the same method as that used by the Commission in the decision, the recalculated fine amounts to €288 million instead of €300 million.
As regards LG Display, the Commission made only one error in setting the fine in that it took the month of January 2006 into account when calculating the average value of sales. As the Commission had, under a leniency notice, granted LG Display partial immunity in respect of January 2006 for having provided information relating to the cartel, that period should have been excluded from every stage of the calculation of the fine. Thus, if January 2006 is excluded from the multiplier for the duration of the infringement, and also from the calculation of the average value of relevant sales, the fine imposed on LG Display must be reduced from €215 million to €210 million.
Antoine Colombani, a spokesman for the EU Competition Commissioner, welcomed the two rulings because the General Court confirmed the main elements of the Commission's decision and the way the Commission had calculated the fines on the basis of the sales price of LCD screens for televisions and computer in Europe, rather than simply for direct sales of such screens. (FG)