Toshiba fined $87 million for LCD price fixing

A court in the US state of California has fined Toshiba $87 million for making price agreements. The vast majority of the fine must be returned to consumers by the Japanese company.

The ruling was made in a so-called class action suit in which a group of victims jointly sue a party, in this case Toshiba. The Japanese company is said to have made agreements with several other manufacturers to keep the price of LCDs high. Some of these manufacturers already settled for 539 million dollars at the end of last year. Toshiba then decided not to settle and await the trial.

The manufacturer maintains its position that it has not done anything illegal and says it will take legal action to prove that. Despite the jury’s verdict, Toshiba believes it will not have to pay compensation because the victims have already been compensated by the companies that reached a settlement at the end of last year. According to the ruling, a total of $70 million must be paid to consumers and another 17 million to aggrieved manufacturers.