Hitachi whose reputation was aleady on the line in Australia after they were kicked out of Harvey Norman for trying to sell 1080i plasma TV’s as Full HD has this week agreed to plead guilty to conspiring to fix prices on the sale of LCD panels in the US.
Shortly after the scandal which was exposed by SmartHouse and ChannelNews broke the Company quite the Australian flat panel market.
Now according to Reuters the Japan-based electronics firm agreed to pay a $31 million fine as part of its deal with the U.S. Justice Department. Three other major producers of liquid crystal display panels have already admitted their involvement in price-fixing.
Hitachi admitted to fixing prices of the screens for use in desktop monitors and notebook computers from 2001 to 2004. LG, Sharp, and Chunghwa Picture Tubes Ltd. struck similar plea agreements last year relating to their sales of glass display screens for laptop computers, cellphones, and new TVs.
