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LG Display to pay $380M to settle LCD price-fixing lawsuit

Combined with a previous settlement, new resolution with two other LCD makers will bring the total recovery to more than $1 billion.

Steven Musil Night Editor / News
Steven Musil is the night news editor at CNET News. He's been hooked on tech since learning BASIC in the late '70s. When not cleaning up after his daughter and son, Steven can be found pedaling around the San Francisco Bay Area. Before joining CNET in 2000, Steven spent 10 years at various Bay Area newspapers.
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LG Display agreed to pay $380 million to settle a lawsuit accusing it of conspiring to fix prices in the liquid crystal display market, the largest sum among its fellow defendants in the case.

Collectively, three companies agreed to pay $571 million to settle a class-action lawsuit that alleged LCD manufacturers colluded to drive up the price of screens used in televisions, laptops, and other electronics, according to a Reuters report. AU Optronics and Toshiba agreed to pay $170 million and $21 million, respectively, according to a plaintiffs' attorney.

A separate case involving seven other companies, including Samsung, Sharp, and Hitachi, resulted in a settlement last year of $535 million. The trio in the most recent resolution did not participate in last year's settlement. When approved, the most recent settlement will bring the combined recovery to more than $1 billion.

The original complaints alleged that the companies were working together with one another to create an international cartel to set and control pricing of LCD panels. A little more than a year ago, many of the same manufacturers were targeted by the European Union and fined $856 million. Like the direct buyer settlement, that investigation took aim at LCD panels made between October 2001 and February 2006.

A previous settlement aimed at so-called "direct" buyers who were the victims of price-fixing on products like TVs and PCs with LCD panels between 2001 and 2006. That particular suit resulted in a settlement of $388 million, split between the various companies involved.