Toshiba, LG Display and AU Optronics have agreed to pay a combined $543.5m to settle a price fixing law suit in the US.
San Francisco attorney Joseph Alioto who was co-lead counsel representing screen purchasers suing the companies, said the money will meet damages suffered by consumers in 24 states who overpaid for electronics, Bloomberg reported.
The case was filed in 2007 when Toshiba was sued by direct purchasers of LCD panels for involving in a conspiracy to fix the price of liquid crystal displays sold in the US.
LCDs are used in everything from flat-panel televisions to computers and mobile phones.
The manufacturers will also fork out another $27.5m in civil penalties to eight states, bringing the total to $571m, the report added.
Including an earlier settlement with seven other LCD panel makers for $538.5m approved by a US judge on Wednesday, the cash settlement totals more than $1bn, setting a record for recovery in a class action, lawsuit over price-fixing, Alioto said.
In this month, the San Francisco federal court has found Toshiba guilty of conspiracy involving several Japanese, Korean, and Taiwanese LCD manufacturers to raise prices between 1999 and 2006.
At that time, LG Display, Toshiba, and AU Optronics Corp had yet to settle the case while Toshiba was ordered to pay an $87m fine to resolve the claims.
But Toshiba said it won’t have to pay that amount due to previous settlements by other defendants.
This week, Sharp agreed to pay $198.5m to settle LCD price fixing suit in US.
