Wednesday, 7 October 2009

CRT Prices: Panasonic, Samsung and LG fined in Japan


The giant Panasonic, Sony, which should bite sooner or later (and thus become the No. 1 in Japan ahead of Sony and Hitachi) has just been fined in his own country. Japan has indeed ordered Panasonic, but the South Korean giants Samsung and LG Electronics, pay a fine of 3.32 billion. Yen ... Slightly more than 25 million euros. A sum which shall represent a few minutes at most a few hours of sales for these companies. This mosquito bites made by the authorities of the rival Nippon these three groups was for the well known because of price fixing, here, to be precise, on rates of CRT (CRTs). Panasonic was the company most affected, with more than half of the fine (1.8 billion yen), against 1.37 billion yen for Samsung and 151 million yen (1.15 million euros. ..) for LG. Japan, unlike Europe, is quite customary for these small fines. Last August, the authority inflicted three Japanese steel companies fined record 15.6 billion yen or 120 million euros. Far from EUR 899 million for Microsoft or 1.06 billion euros for the Intel side of Brussels ... Panasonic, Samsung and LG could appeal the decision. Interestingly, the Japanese authorities have said that investigations on the same case have been launched in Europe and the United States.