Cartel of color picture tube manufacturers fined

The Office for the Protection of Competition (the Office) stated in its first instance proceedings that the companies Samsung SDI Co., Ltd., Chunghwa Picture Tubes, Ltd., Koninklijke Philips Electronics N.V., Technicolor S.A., Panasonic Corporation, MT Picture Display Co., Ltd., Toshiba Corporation and LG Electronics, Inc. concluded and fulfilled a cartel agreement in the market of TV color picture tubes in the years 1998-2004 (some of the mentioned companies participated in the agreement for a shorter period which the Office took into account in its decision).

For the infringement of the Act on the Protection of Competition the majority of these companies was imposed a fine of total amount of CZK 51.787 million. The decision is not final and the appeal may be lodged.

However, the Office did not prove the existence of prohibited agreements on division, restriction or control of production and on division of a market in the area of TV color picture tubes (CPT), and on price fixing, restriction or control of production, division of a market, including the exchange of sensitive business information, in the area of color display tubes (CDT).

The manufacturers of cathode ray tubes (CRT; CDT and CPT) met bilaterally and multilaterally for many years; their meetings and contacts started even prior to the year 1998 and continued approximately until the year 2006. The meetings took place in Asian and European countries. Prior to the year 1998 rather informal ad hoc meetings took place among the CRT manufacturers. Consequently, the CRT manufacturers began to meet in a more organized and systematic way. During these meetings the participants discussed the prices and exchanged sensitive business information. Price negotiations consisted of fixing of end and minimum prices, price range and price rules or maintenance of the agreed prices. Maintenance of the agreed prices was subsequently checked by the parties to the proceedings.

The Office started to deal with the cartel on the basis of a request for application of leniency program. This allows remission of a fine or its part to such an undertaking which reports to the Office the existence of a prohibited agreement and provides it with sufficient proof. For this reason the fine for the company Samsung was remitted completely and decreased by 50 % in case of the company Chunghwa. In case of the companies Philips and LG Electronics the fine could not have been imposed, as the statutory time limit for its imposition had already expired (these companies did not fulfill the agreement in question after July 1, 2001).

• Chunghwa Picture Tubes, Ltd.  CZK 6.400.000
• Technicolor S.A.  CZK 13.858.000
• Panasonic Corporation  CZK 10.373.000
• MT Picture Display Co., Ltd.  CZK 9.430.000
• Toshiba Corporation  CZK 11.726.000
• Total    CZK 51.787.000

External Relations Department
10/107/HS031