Japanese electronics manufacturer Epson Imaging Devices Corp has agreed to plead guilty and pay a US$26 million fine for its role in a price-fixing conspiracy, the US Justice Department said on Tuesday.
Epson, a subsidiary of Seiko Epson Corp, conspired to fix prices in the sale of thin-film-transistor liquid-crystal-display (TFT-LCD) 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.
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 US$616 million on South Korea’s LG Display, Japan’s Sharp Corp, Taiwan’s Chunghwa Picture Tubes Ltd (華映) and Hitachi Displays Ltd of Japan.
LG Display, formerly known as LG Philips LCD Co Ltd, agreed in November to pay a fine of US$400 million. Sharp agreed to pay a US$120 million fine, Chunghwa was fined US$65 million, while Hitachi Displays Ltd agreed in March to pay a US$31 million fine.
The fine levied on LG Display was the second-largest US antitrust fine after the record US$500 million handed down against Swiss pharmaceutical giant F. Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd in 1999 for fixing vitamin prices.
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