Clamping down on cartels and collusive practices
MENTION cartels, and certain industries - oil, diamonds, steel - tend to come up as prime examples of where price fixing and anti-competitive collusion have historically been rife. More recently, electronics firms seem to have joined the list.
In 2010, the European Commission (EC) fined six producers of liquid crystal display (LCD) panels (two South Korean and four Taiwanese companies) a total of 649 million euros (S$1 billion) for operating a cartel between October 2001 and February 2006. Convening mainly in hotels in Taiwan for what they called "crystal meetings", the companies agreed on prices - including price ranges and minimum prices - and exchanged information on future production planning, capacity utilisation, pricing and other commercial conditions over the period.
Two years later in 2012, the EC handed down its biggest antitrust penalty yet when it fined six firms a total of 1.47 billion euros for market manipulation in what was then already an outdated technology - cathode ray tubes for TV and desktop computers - for almost a decade. Between 1996 and 2006, the companies - including big names Philips, LG Electronics and Panasonic - met in Europe and Asia for their collusive "green meetings", so called because they often ended in a round of golf.
BT is now on Telegram!
For daily updates on weekdays and specially selected content for the weekend. Subscribe to t.me/BizTimes
Columns
‘Competition for talent’ a poor excuse to keep key executives’ pay under wraps
OCBC should put its properties into a Reit and distribute the trust’s units to shareholders
Why a stronger US dollar is dangerous
An overstimulated US economy is asking for trouble
Too many property agents? Cap commissions on home sales
Time to study broadening of private market access