Japanese electronics company Sharp has agreed to pay $198.5m to settle three thin film transistor (TFT) panel price-fixing lawsuits filed by Dell and two other unnamed companies.
The payments are apparently an out-of-court settlement pertaining to the North American and European operations of Sharp’s TFE Displays & Accessories unit.
"After broadly considering factors such as the U.S. civil lawsuit system and the facts of this case, Sharp has determined that agreeing to a settlement is the best policy," the company said in a statement.
Following the payment of the amount all three cases will be withdrawn which was filed after November 2009 seeking monetary compensations for LCD transactions.
The Japanese electronic products provider plans to book the settlement cost as a special loss in its fourth quarter of fiscal 2013 that ends in March.
In 2010, Dell filed a lawsuit against Sharp, Epson, Hitachi and Toshiba Corp for alleged price fixing on LCD panels and setting artificially high prices for the TFT panels, mainly used in TVs, laptops and handheld gadgets.
The suit was filed following an investigation by the US Department of Justice (DOJ) in which Sharp and certain Asian LCD makers were found guilty of price-fixing.
Sharp was fined $120m by the DOJ, and the latest settlement will be in addition to that.
AT&T and Nokia are believed to be the other two firms paid in the settlement as both filed a similar case against Sharp in 2009.
