A guilty verdict has been reached concerning the Hitachi-LG Data Storage trial. The joint company admitted to 15 criminal counts related to price fixing on components for consumer electronics devices. The judge in charge of the case sentenced the guilty parties to a $21.1 million fine. Hitachi and LG had been under investigation over the past several years due to allegations of price-fixing collusions on optical disk drives, particularly those found in laptops and desktop computers.
A guilty verdict has been reached concerning the Hitachi-LG Data Storage trial. The joint company admitted to 15 criminal counts related to price fixing on components for consumer electronics devices. The judge in charge of the case sentenced the guilty parties to a $21.1 million fine. Hitachi and LG had been under investigation over the past several years due to allegations of price-fixing collusions on optical disk drives, particularly those found in laptops and desktop computers.
The price-fixing has been on-going since at least 2004. During that time, Hitachi-LG admitted in court that they were working with other companies to fix prices on optical disk drives sold to several businesses, which included HP, Dell, and Microsoft. Hitachi-LG Data Storage is the only company that has been charged by U.S. prosecutors so far.
In addition to the collusion charges, they were also charged with attempting to defraud HP back in 2009 during a procurement event.
Although a $21 million fine is only a slap on the wrist for the massive joint venture, the Justice Department stated that Hitachi-LG was warranted a smaller fine because it had cooperated fully with the investigation and gave “substantial assistance” to government officials who were investigating the case.
