Hitachi Admits to LCD Price Fixing; Screws Buyers

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hellwig

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So Hitachi and Dell agree on a price for LCDs, and Hitachi gets in trouble, but not Dell? Hitachi can sell LCDs at whatever price they want, doesn't there have to be a conspiracy somewhere to make it illegal?

Plus, that $31mil goes to who, the government? Not the consumers who got screwed over by Hitachi?
 
G

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Since when can't you sell items with profit?
If you think the demand is high, and the quality meets the needs, you are allowed as a company to raise your product's price.

Only, don't go whining when another company rises selling for half the price!
 

skine

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The article seems to indicate that Dell did something wrong.

It fails to state clearly that Sharp, LG Display, Chungwha Picture Tubes and Hitachi all conspired, while Dell, Apple and Motorola were in fact the victims of an illegal agreement between the former four corporations.

Why they even mention that Dell met with Hitachi to discuss price is beyond my comprehension. I' m sure Dell was glad to join in on the conspiracy of making themselves pay more.
 

Claimintru

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I'd be more interested to see how closely those fines relate to the sheer amount of added revenue each company made from said price fixing.

Also, the DoJ must have loved to rake in half a billion dollars in a matter of months. They're making more revenue than most medium sized businesses and corporations in the US =P
 

bin1127

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not really understanding this article. They had a meeting with the US companies. So how can that be price fixing? Unless they meant Hitachi and Dell TOGETHER conspired to screw buyers.
 

falchard

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I think price fixing of the LCD market is a moot offense. Despite these companies fixing prices, it does not help their cause considering the massive amount of competition in this particular market. If they did price hike, they would just be giving more money to Samsung.
 

tenor77

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Maybe I'm missing the point but this seems like capitalism to me not price fixing. Is it saying Dell got a special price or an unfair advantage or that customers paid more for the monitor than someone buying a monitor seperately?

I have no love for any of these companies but that's the whole point of competition. Unless you are conspiring to keep prices for the entire market inflated (oil companies, looking at you) if they're selling at too high of a pricepoint people won't buy them.
 

jitpublisher

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You can sell your goods to a distributor for whatever price you and they agree on. What you cannot do is tell the distributor, or conspire with them about the price they will sell for. Dell is likely the one who helped get the legal proceedings started, if Hitachi was "black mailing" them, so to speak. Threatenting to halt shipments, break the deal, raise their price, etc. And companies this large once they start the purchasing process with a supplier, it is a lenghtly and very expensive procedure to simply "buy them somewhere else".
The legal version of this you see everyday, as "Manufacture's Suggested Retail Price" and everyone knows that you never pay this for a product.
 

bunz_of_steel

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I liked this article but would like to have more detail. Seems to be confusion on what is price fixing and why that is illegal in a capitalistic society such as the U.S. Price fixing is as I believe when companies conspire to set prices that affect the "said" industry. Basically controlling or interfering with free trade, dissolving or nullifying the free market competition. This is considered a criminal offense in the U.S. You can charge any price you want for any product but violating anti-trust laws occur when two or more companies of an industry "conspire" or agree to whatever prices but the effects Kill free trade. Free trade should never be allowed to only the rich or elite. Anti trust laws are there to protect people like you and me. Question comes to mind though is with the Oil industry because from what I read they do this all the time!

TSM
 
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