Tuesday, March 9, 2010

INDUSTRY NEWS: Disc Drive Makers Accused of Price Fixing

Several big-name optical disc drive players have been accused of price-fixing by a U.S. electronics retailer, which has filed a lawsuit against those companies. The antitrust lawsuit alleges that the vendors colluded since October 2005 to "fix, raise, maintain and stabilize the price of optical disc drive products sold in the United States.”

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DRIVE MAKERS ACCUSED OF PRICE FIXING

WASHINGTON – Several optical disc drive (ODD) players including Hitachi, LG, Samsung, Sony and Toshiba, have been accused of price fixing by a U.S. electronics retailer, which has filed a lawsuit against the companies.

Prisco Electric Company has initiated an antitrust lawsuit against the ODD makers, alleging the vendors colluded since October 2005 to "fix, raise, maintain and stabilize the price of optical disc drive products sold in the United States.” "These defendants have a long history of engaging in anticompetitive conduct, such as Dynamic Random Access Memory (DRAM), Thin Film Transistor Liquid Crystal Display (TFT-LCD) and Cathode Ray Tube (CRT)," Prisco added in the filing. The retailer also claimed the disc-drive makers tapped trade organization forums to meet and negotiate agreements to keep prices of CD, DVD and Blu-ray drives used in products such as Sony's PlayStation 3 and PCs, artificially high. "When the price of ODD began to dip, the defendants entered into an illegal agreement to prevent competitors from entering into the market and to keep prices at a supra-competitive level," Prisco noted in the lawsuit. Prisco is seeking triple damages, as well as an injunction against the companies involved to stop future price fixing activities. The retailer, however, did not give a specific amount.

SOURCE: Lawday

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