Price fixing claims
Telco AT&T has said that LCD manufacturers involved in a price-fixing scandal will be sued over extra costs it has had to stump up for handsets.
The case came about after LG, Samsung, Chunghua, AU Optronics admitted to a price-fixing case brought by the US government. That case was related to a cartel which operated between 1996, to December 11, 2006 when the four outfits illegally attempted to restrict competition” to raise the price of their LCD products.
AT&T bought the handsets and sold them with a subsidy to punters. It could not pass on the increased costs and was left with a huge bill on millions of handsets.
LCD makers will be in a sweat about this case because if AT&T’s wins it opens the door to other telcos to take action. What is worse is that consumers to join a class action and basically empty the companies' bank accounts.